Lufkin Pool Closure Highlights Questions Facing Crockett

By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – When the Crockett City Council revisits the city swimming pool discussion Monday, the question will involve more than the cost of building the facility. A recent decision in nearby Lufkin offers a reminder that swimming pools also require continuing staffing, maintenance and operating expenses long after construction is complete. Lufkin announced that Jones Swimming Pool would remain closed this year because the city could not secure enough lifeguards to operate it. Brian Bray, assistant city manager for Lufkin, said the closure is not intended to be permanent, but the city has struggled with the pool’s operation for years.
“The city of Lufkin does not have any plans to shutter Jones swimming pool,” Bray said.
At the same time, he said the pool has been difficult to operate consistently. “It’s been hit or miss the last several years, five-plus years,” Bray said. “We went several years without being able to open it, and then we had several years where we had enough lifeguards and were able to open it.” The shortage of lifeguards is only one part of the challenge. Bray said a city must also account for chemicals, routine maintenance and major repairs that eventually become necessary as a pool ages.
“The cost to build the pool is expensive, but you are incurring reoccurring costs,” he said. Bray compared a swimming pool to a house, explaining that neither can be built and then left without maintenance. “Swimming pools need maintenance just like a house,” he said. “You don’t build a house and
then say, ‘Man, it’s been 20 years. I can’t believe I have to repair it.” Lufkin’s pool required work this year after developing a slow leak. Bray said the city had to seal
the pool liner, but that type of repair is not a permanent solution.
“At some point, there’s going to have to be a major repair to that, to the pool,” he said. Those expenses are part of the larger decision facing any city considering a public swimming pool. Building the facility creates an ongoing obligation to maintain it, staff it and keep it open. “You are, by building a swimming pool, agreeing to future costs,” Bray said. “The maintenance cost, the carrying cost.” Crockett’s own pool discussion has continued for several years. Earlier discussions have involved a possible Texas Parks and Wildlife grant of roughly $750,000, design and engineering work, the city’s required local match and questions about how the pool would be operated
once it was built.