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Mesa to spend $20 million to fix pools
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Mesa city officials are digging deep to renovate a select few of the city’s aging pools.
About a year ago, the city abandoned a plan to build a multi-million dollar aquatics center in downtown Mesa.
The reason: the city’s 12 pools were in various states of disrepair and some could have been forced to shut down.
The city’s new plan is to funnel nearly $20 million to Kino, Rhodes and Carson pools located at schools around west Mesa.
The pool at Carson Junior High School received the first renovation, reopening in May. Improvements included a splash area for kids, a competition pool and a dive area.
Pools at Kino and Rhodes junior high schools also could undergo extensive renovations starting in February.
About $8.7 million in renovations at Kino for a competition-level pool could attract regional swim competitions. Mesa hasn’t been able to attract the events for the last eight years because the pool is not deep enough to meet current standards, said Andrea Moore, with the city’s Parks and Recreation division.
The pool at Rhodes Junior High School is slated for $5.9 million in renovations.
A splash area and a standing wave surfing area will be added to the pool, according to plans.
The city shares the pools with the Mesa school district, with the city paying for the majority of the construction costs and the schools paying the utilities to operate the pools.
Despite the planned renovations, five of Mesa’s pools are in rough shape, Moore said. If one of those five pools needs a major repair in the near future, it could be shut down because the city’s budget is too tight.
“They don’t need to shut down, yet,” Moore said. “At this point, I guess it would depend on how big the repair would be. I guess they’re on a watch list, you could say.”
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