PLAYLAND: #PackThePool This Sunday, 4pm

Westchester County Legislators Catherine Parker (District 7: Rye, Larchmont, Mam’k, parts of Harrison & New Rochelle) and David Gelfarb (District 6: Port Chester, Rye Brook & parts of Harrison) will be meeting Constituents for a swim at the Playland Pool from 4-5pm on Sunday July 17th. They want you to come on down and tell them what you think about the proposed closing of the Playland Pool. Please come on out, bring your suit and help us PACK THE POOL to help save it.

What’s going on?

County Executive Rob Astorino wants to close the Playland Pool and fill it in to make way for the Hedge Fund he’s hired to manage Playland to put restaurant facilities/catering facilities in its place. “Standard Amusements/United Parks” does not want to operate a public swimming pool because public pools are not profit driven amenities.

Please come out in force and bring friends to tell the Legislators to say “NO!” to this plan!

*Monday July 18th the Westchester County Board of Legislators begin a review process on the fate of the Pool. To fill the Playland Pool in would cost $2.7 Mil. Last week the BOL received a cost estimate for full RESTORATION of the Pool and its surrounding areas, for a price tag of around $9.5 Mil.

Why is this such a bad idea?

*There was an Aquatics Master Plan drafted by the County in 2006 to restore and refurbish all five Westchester County Swimming Pools. To date three of the five have been successfully restored, are fabulous entities to visit (and assets to the Westchester County Parks system) and all three have seen a resurgence in attendance and revenue since their restoration.

Visit the links to those County Pools here:

Wilsons’ Woods/Wilson’s Waves

Saxon Woods Pool

Tibbetts Brook Park Pool

*The two remaining County Pools to be included in the Aquatics Plan are Sprain Ridge Pool (click link for a Phil Reisman LoHud article that updates the Sprain Ridge situation) & Playland Pool. In August of 2015 County Executive Rob Astorino requested - and received – from the Board of Legislators approval to bond out $9.3 to restore and re-open the Pool at Sprain Ridge Park. That Pool was in such disrepair that it has been completely closed for at least six summers now. Yet in June of 2016 Astorino asked the Legislators ONLY to approve a Bond Act for $2.7 Mil to DEMOLISH AND FILL IN the Playland Pool, citing lack of attendance and the prohibitive cost of repairing it, even though the Playland Pool had 27,000 visitors in 2015 and the $9.5 Mil estimate for restoration is in keeping with, or lower than, the costs of all the other County Pool restorations.

*The Playland Pool does not leak to the extent that the County Executive’s office continues to publicly cite. Leakage was significantly capped by the use of a sealant product called SikaFlex a number of years ago. And the estimates that the Pool leaks 35,000 gallons of water a day are preposterous. That would require almost NINE home heating oil trucks worth of water to be infused into the Pool DAILY just to keep it full. This kind of leak simply does not exist at the Playland Pool.

*Considering that the Playland Pool is closed Mondays & Tuesdays and only open for about six hours a day, five days a week for about 9-11 weeks per season, an attendance of 20,000-27,000 visitors a season should not be considered inadequate attendance. Given the curtailed operating hours and lack of public access to the Pool, it should actually be considered remarkably successful.

*The Playland Pool is the ONLY public swimming Pool in its area. While many people located directly in Rye may have access to private home pools, country club memberships or the Pool at the Rye Golf Club (where just POOL memberships for the summer cost between $750-$900 for one person up to almost $1700 a season for a family https://www.ryegolfclub.com/documents/10180/0/2016%20New%20Resident%20Member.pdf) the Pool at Playland costs a mere $6 maximum per visit, with lower pricing for children, Senior Citizens and Season Pass holders. The Playland Pool serves the members of Rye and other Westchester Communities who have no other pool options for summer time swimming and cooling down. (For Playland Pool rates click here)

*Local “Sound Shore” beaches are closed on a somewhat regular basis every summer due to storm run-off, pollution, red tides etc. When the temps soar and the beaches are closed, Playland Pool is the ONLY option for many people.

*The filling in and elimination of the Playland Pool raises very serious questions about the possible need for Parkland Alienation as well as the chance that such a drastic altering of the original historic design of the Park could potentially compromise Playland’s status as a National Historic Landmark/ listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Those statuses were hard won and it would be terrible to lose them forever. This would be irreversible.

*The Pool area already HAS two designated eating areas located on either side of the upper deck that have long been closed/neglected. If “dining facilities” are desired there, all that has to be done is a RESTORATION of what was originally designed for that space, and two eateries could be re-introduced to the Pool area, without any loss of the Pool facility. There is simply no need for additional construction projects or any change to the Pool’s footprint to accomplish this.

*It's not at all likely that local residents in Rye will be amenable to the hustle and bustle of a busy year-round set of restaurants/catering facility in that location, just yards from residential homes. Further, the success of such is debatable, as winter weather is prohibitive. Seaside Johnnie's & The Tiki Bar close in the Winters for very good reason...the cold and wind on the waterfront there can be unbearable for pedestrians.

Please come out and join us on Sunday, July 17, 2016 at 4pm to show our support for keeping and restoring the Pool at Playland.

#PackThePool

Plan on paying $10 for parking (and expect to have to park in Main Lot if Pool lot is filled) and $6 for entry to the Pool.

If you can’t come, please contact Legislators Gelfarb & Parker via email to let them know you thoughts. David Gelfarb is now the sitting Chair of the Parks Committee for the Board of Legislators.

Parker’s email: parker@westchesterlegislators.com

Gelfarb’s email: dxg1@westchestergov.com

For more information on this issue see these links:

Westchester County Legislator Jim Maisano Strongly Supports Keeping the Playland Pool

Port Chester Mayor Dennis Pilla Strongly Supports Keeping the Pool

‘Playland’s Public Swimming Pool – Buh Bye!” Rye Patch 6/2/16

“Playland Pool Update – Just the Facts” – Rye Patch 7/13/16

For timely updates on this situation be sure to "like" and follow the Friends Of Playland Facebook Page!