Playland Pool Update: Just the FACTS, Folks....

A few weeks ago I posted a piece about the imminent closure of the public swimming Pool at Playland (click here). Here’s a step by step explanation of what’s going on here and what the facts – and myths – about the Pool at Playland are:

*Why is Removal of the Pool at Playland Even Being Discussed?

What anyone watching this move that County Executive Rob Astorino embarked on in 2010 to privatize management of Playland understands is that since the day he started this bizarre and woefully misguided endeavor, the Pool’s future has ALWAYS been in peril. NONE of the three finalists picked ever had any plans to keep a public swimming pool at Playland, not even SPI. The group that Astorino hand-picked to “manage” the Park – Standard Amusements/United Parks – has NEVER said that they wanted a Pool there. In the beginning they seemed to be flirting with the idea of some sort of water park type feature on that spot, and they now have inexplicably abandoned that idea, offering no alternative in its place. Standard Amusements/United Parks is a hedge fund shell game and they are looking to make a quick profit. (Speculation among my consultants who know the financial world better than I tell me that they are looking to “flip” the management contract to another company in just a couple of years, after getting it a bargain basement price and having the County put up the money to restore the Park, they will then find another management company to take on the no-longer distressed property and hand the management contract off to them for a hefty fee).

Public swimming pools are AMENITIES and they are not profit-driven businesses. NO ONE makes money off of running a public swimming pool. Standard Amusements has no interest in running a Pool on behalf of the County. In the artist’s renderings (which are the ONLY form of a plan to date that has been submitted by SA/UP) we can see a filled-in pool with a patio for a dining facility. They have remained very vague about what they plan to do with that space once it’s filled in, but you can bet it’s not going to be something the neighbors are going to be too happy about and it’s going to be designed to be busy and make lots of money.

So, Rob Astorino wants the COUNTY TAXPAYERS to foot the cost ($2.7 Mil) of filling the Pool in for Standard Amusements/United Parks, without ever having SA/UP tell us what they are going to put there instead (or WHO will be paying for THAT construction job…). The ONLY reason we are talking about removal of that public swimming pool – and let’s be very, very clear here – is to placate Nick Singer and Jack Falfas of Standard Amusements and give them what they want. That’s it. There IS no other reason.

Astorino’s office is letting these guys drive the bus and make public policy for County residents when they aren’t even RUNNING the place yet. This deal is so convoluted and complex and has so many financial and Capital Improvements projects bench marks that need to be met that Astorino’s office has even said that SA/UP won’t actually have keys to the place until an anticipated date of NOVEMBER 1, 2018. Standard Amusements currently has NO PRESENCE whatsoever at the Park, they are running absolutely NOTHING down there yet, the only time anyone sees Nick Singer and Jack Falfas is when they’re spotted walking through the Park during public operating hours with men in business suits begging them for money because they still need investors. During the past year of a “co-management period” they haven’t so much as “co-managed” a French fry into a paper bag. Yet Astorino will let them dictate to County residents whether we keep or lose that Pool. It’s a travesty.

*But Astorinos’ Office Says the Pool is Too Far Gone to Fix…

THIS, my friends, is total and complete BS. I’ve been telling Mark Lungariello from LoHud for almost six months now that the report he put out in the Journal News claiming the Pool “leaks 35,000 gallons of water a day” was absolutely not true. I don’t care WHAT ten year old report Ned McCormack of Astorino’s office pointed him towards, that Pool has NEVER leaked that kind of water. Remember when I incredulously asked back in 2013 “just how big IS a 95,000 Sq. Ft. Field House anyway?” Well, I asked the same question about that leak. Just how much water IS a 35,000 gallon A DAY leak? Here’s the answer: An average home oil delivery truck holds 5,000 gallons. Those are the trucks that arrive at your house to fill your oil tanks, we’ve all seen them. If the Pool at Playland was leaking 35,000 gallons of water a day, you would need SEVEN OF THOSE TRUCKS A DAY to fill it back up, or you would need a fire hose going constantly from a fire hydrant to keep up with the water loss. The beach would be a flooded hot mess. That number is preposterous. The leaks that the Pool *did* have were fixed sometime in the last 5-10 years with a sealant product called SikaFlex. Apparently the SikaFlex worked SO well for the Pool that it’s now used widely throughout the Park for other things. Playland should probably be in a SikaFlex commercial! (calling SikaFlex, where are you?) So when you read or hear that the Playland Pool leaks massive amounts of water and is so far gone that it needs to be totally rebuilt or destroyed, don’t believe it. NOT TRUE. More of Astorino’s spin to render the Park a financial drain and failure at every turn. Does it need a plumbing and filter systems overhaul? Yes. Is it crumbling apart? My sources say 'NO!'.

**Author's Update 7/13/16: Last night I was informed by someone in the heating oil business that those home oil delivery trucks actually on hold 4,000 gallons, not 5,000. So it would take 9 (not 7) of those trucks full of water daily to keep the Playland pool filled if it leaked like Astorino claims.

*But Astorino’s Office Keeps Saying the County Can’t Afford to Restore the Pool…”

Yup, you guessed it…more BS. Here’s something most County residents are not aware of. Back in 2006 – when Andy Spano was County Executive – the County commissioned an ‘Aquatics Master Plan”. This was an evaluation of ALL the County owned Pools, an assessment of their condition, an outline of how to restore/rehab and a plan to be implemented to do that for ALL FIVE OF THEM. Interestingly enough, on page 25 of the report, the study recommends that because of its level of deterioration and the high value of having a public pool at Playland coupled with the beach and Amusement Park, and I quote, “Playland should be the number one priority.”

So far, the County Aquatics plan has been successfully completed at three of the five entities. Wilson’s Woods Park in Mt. Vernon now has an absolutely wonderful new pool entity called “Wilson’s Waves” – a wave pool. Tibbetts Brook Park in Yonkers has a water park there that will knock your socks off if you go take a look at it, it’s HUGE. Closer to the Rye area you can easily drive over to Saxon Woods on Mamaroneck Ave in White Plains and see what an incredible job they did rehabbing THAT place. These parks are FABULOUS and the implementation of the Aquatics Master Plan has been very very successful. Not only are the POOLS beautiful, all the surrounding buildings and areas in those parks such as bathrooms, bathhouses, and picnic areas are totally revamped. It’s a very strong statement on how well our Parks Dept. CAN run things and what a great job the County CAN do. If you haven’t visited any of these parks, I urge you to go see for yourself, and bring your bathing suit!

The County-wide Aquatics plan/pool revamp was humming along quite nicely until Rob Astorino took office on Jan. 1, 2010. Then it all came to a screeching, grinding halt. (Thanks Rob!) The two County Pools still left on the list to be done were Sprain Ridge Park and Playland (remember Playland? It was supposed to have been FIRST on the list…). Apparently the conditions at Sprain Ridge were SO bad that they needed to completely shut down and close the Pool there. THAT Pool has remained closed for SEVEN SUMMERS now (I’m told it was so neglected that there was a tree growing in the middle of it, although I didn’t see that for myself). For SEVEN YEARS now, Sprain Ridge Pool has been completely shut down and had not one single visitor. Last summer alone Playland had 27,000 visitors JUST to the Pool, that doesn’t count the Beach attendance. Yet Astorino’s office and their Democratic Shill on the Board Of Legislators, Chairman Mike “No Shame” Kaplowitz, are trying to justify closing the Playland Pool because of lack of attendance and the supposedly prohibitive cost to rehab.

*But The ‘Counties’ Annual Swim Meet has Always Been at Playland…

Yup, for years it has. But the reason Astorino, Kevin Plunkett and Ned McCormack are so quick to dismiss this is because they know that the Aquatics Master Plan drafted ten years ago calls for restoring the Sprain Ridge Pool and moving “The Counties” over there. The plan outlined for Playland’s Pool would keep some lanes for lap swimming and turn some of the area into a more water-park like feature, probably expanding the footprint into some portion of the Pool parking lot. This is not something I’m sure local residents or Counties competitors would agree with and would need further discussion among the Community and the Legislators. It seems to me that keeping Playland as a dedicated swimming pool within the footprint already there and maybe alternating the County Swim Competition from year to year between the two Parks would be an excellent compromise. Perhaps each Park could have its own swim team to compete against each other for a friendly rivalry…

• "WHAT'S NEXT?" Continued in PART 2 - CLICK HERE TO READ....
  

To View the 2006 Aquatics Master Plan Click HERE Then click on the top item from May 12, 2015 titled “POOLS Aquatic Facil Assess & Recomm 2006”

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