City inching closer to decision on Memorial Pool

Board considering steps this week, council next month

A decision on La Crosse’s Memorial Pool is getting closer.  

The city’s park board will consider next steps for the 80-year-old pool this week.

And, next month, the city council will vote on closing the pool for the summer and funding a study to, in part, determine whether it should be opened again.

Jacob Sciammas from the Grandview Emerson Neighborhood Association is happy there’s, at least, a willingness to get an outside opinion on the state of the pool.

“That’s real progress,” he said. “We’re actually having experts come in, so we can stop speculating and doing things that aren’t our expertise.”

A recent report on the pool found numerous code violations and dangerous conditions to go along with poorly functioning equipment and infrastructure that allows the pool to leak thousands of gallons of water per day.   

Sciammas says his group wants to look forward to a pool in their area.

“We want something that’s promised in the future,” he said. “Right now, what we have is nothing. Just a closure. And closing a pool isn’t a plan. A plan is a plan.

Restoring the pool could cost millions. Replacing it would, too. Other parts of the study could help determine whether a new pool at the site would be feasible.