Final Touches Coming to Park and Pool

Long-awaited improvements to Memorial Park and Pool will be completed before Memorial Day, according to the borough engineer.

Vincent J. DeNave said the project still has a few small touches before the project is finished, including fencing and landscaping.

Council President James Lonergan, who sits on the Joint Recreation Advisory Committee, said contractors were waiting for warm weather to lay the concrete. Some of the concrete was laid last week, as the pictures attached to this article show.

"Fields [are] pretty much done other than fencing and small area of grass," Lonergan said, and barring extreme winter weather the fields will be in play by May 1, "ahead of schedule."

The retaining wall and kiddie pool have been installed, with the children's pool area now level with the adult pool. The new kiddie pool is about 40 percent larger than the former pool. The sitting area around the pools will be extended and reinstalled, and piping improvements are also included in the project. There are also new filters, skimmers and drains.

The basketball court will be redone once the weather warms up, Lonergan said.

Morris County rejected the borough's plan to expand the parking lot, DeNave said.

The need for these costly improvements led to a referendum vote in 2010 on whether borough residents wanted to keep the pool open, which passed with a wide margin.

The Council unanimously voted in August to. for the final fee of $840,224.50, including the parking lot which has changed since the original vote.

Lonergan said the pool is likely to operate this year without a burden for taxpayers, thanks to the "capital investment in the pool."

In previous years, taxpayers have paid between $25,000 and $27,000 to support the pool.

With the anticipated growth in membership thanks to the pool's improvements, "we should end up with a net zero cost to the taxpayer pool, which is a dramatic improvement," Lonergan said.

Fees for those who join the pool before April 30 will not pay a price increase over the 2011 fees.

"We'll have a beautiful new pool, great location, and these are by far the cheapest rates you'll see anywhere still," Lonergan said. "We're trying to get people to act quickly and book their membership before May 1."

The 2012 fees are as follows:

Swim lesson registration begins Wednesday for all children who will be 4 years old before June 25, when lessons begin. Swim lessons run Monday though Friday for three consecutive weeks. Residents must submit birth certificates for their children at the time of registration.

The pool opens weekends beginning May 26 and fulltime in late June.