Where Will Your Family Be Cooling Off This Summer?

Finding which area pool best suits you and your family.

Believe it or not, Memorial Day weekend is just two days away and the blistering hot days of summer will soon be upon us. With pool registration signs popping up all around us, you may be thinking about where you and your family will be cooling off during those hot, sunny days. Whether you want to sink your toes into the sand by a pond-like pool or bask in the sun beside the crystal-clear water of a classic pool, our area offers many different options. Which pool works best for your family? It is not easy to know without doing a little bit of homework and knowing your needs. Parents of young children may be anxious to find a zero-entry pool with a relaxed and quiet atmosphere. Families with school-aged kids might be interested in a very …

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Colleen Bohensky

6:31 pm on Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Where is that located?   more ›

Pool Registrations Open for Summer

Colony Pool and the Chatham Borough Municipal Pool have announced their 2011 membership rates.

Chatham municipal pools are ready for summer. With their membership rates announced and Memorial Day events planned, residents have their options open for the summer. The Chatham Borough Municipal Pool opens May 28 on weekends and fulltime starting June 27. Borough residents will need to show their driver's licenses and a current utility bill with their Chatham address when they sign up for their membership. Members will be able to view the planned improvements to the pool that voters approved in the November 2010 election, including a wading pool just north of where the current pool is located. Borough children who need swim lessons must be 4 years old before June 1. Residents will need to submit their children's original birth …

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You Ask ... Patch Answers

What's Going On With the Municipal Pool?

A resolution to create a Municipal Pool Advisory Committee makes its third appearance on the Borough Council agenda.

Welcome to "You Ask … Patch Answers," the weekly column for Chathamites looking for solutions to community problems or issues. One reader asked: What's going on with the Municipal Pool? They haven't formed an advisory board yet, and no work has started yet, and I can't even tell what they want an advisory board for. What kind of improvements are we talking about here? Improvements to the Chatham Borough Municipal Pool, according to Borough Engineer Vincent J. DeNave, are more improvements to the grounds and pipes as opposed to improvements of the actual pool. The size of the pool itself will not change. "If we were to do that, we'd be talking about a much bigger project," DeNave said, bigger in both cost and time it would take to …

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Patch's Comments of the Week

Borough Pool Still Controversial

Comments from Morris County Patch sites throughout the week.

In Chatham, the vote over whether to fix up the borough pool was a contentious one. You didn't have to look farther than our comments section to see that.  Reader barbara heimrich summed up the pro side of the argument succinctly: The vote was a clear message to the Council that a majority of people in the Boro want to save the pool. ... I think that most people can afford $15.00 per year on their tax bill, especially to pay for something besides athletic fields and legal fees. Pool fees have indeed risen to help defray costs and, by the way, as of 2010 Township residents are able to join the pool, paying a slightly higher fee than Boro residents. But the cost-conscious Rt124Guy spoke up for those who feel otherwise:  It is not for you …

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Council to Discuss Pool's Improvement Plan

After residents voted in favor of renovations, next steps to be outlined.

Current and future members of the Borough Council are already discussing how to move forward with renovations to the Chatham Borough Municipal Pool. Mayor Nelson Vaughan said that at the next council meeting on Tuesday he will propose the formation of a Pool Committee "that will provide guidance for the pool and make sure it goes through with the least possible expense to the borough." Vicki Fife, the newest elected member of the council, said she thought a committee or board of "people who are really in charge of making decisions for the pool" would be an essential step to moving forward. Vaughan said that a pool committee could also look for any possible grants, from either private or public sources, that would help lower costs to the …

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Borough Residents Vote to Save Pool

Referendum to save Chatham Borough Municipal Pool passed by a margin of less than 500 votes.

Borough residents will have a municipal pool next summer. Susan Caljean, the Chatham Borough Clerk, said voters opted for an increase in taxes to pay for renovations to the pool. The votes were 1,524 in favor, 1,041 opposed. Chatham Patch spoke with over 30 voters Tuesday who refused to go on the record on their opinion about the pool. Council members Len Resto and John Holman were among those who declined to comment on the record. Council President and candidate Jim Collander said, "We need a large turnout as an indication of how people feel about the pool." Resident Greg Lowe said after voting, "I don't know if there's enough interest in the pool [to support it]. I think it should be funded just by membership, not by taxes." Voter …

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R. Swanson

9:09 am on Thursday, November 4, 2010

It is not for you or anyone to determine that most people can afford an extra $15 per year on their tax bill. Where does the line get drawn? An extra $10 here, and extra $15 there, and before you know it your property tax bill is significantly higher. This will be an albatross around the Borough's neck for years to come. $400,000 in debt (the Memorial Park and Sheppard Kollock funds are NOT …   more ›

An Election Day Appeal: Save the Municipal Pool

Jack and Diane Sullivan hope voters save the municipal pool.

Here are several pictures we took in Madison over the weekend when we took our children trick or treating to their businesses.  I couldn't express their sentiment better.  It's just such a sad shame that a town like Chatham, that has had the resources to pour millions over the years into so many projects, not all necessary or approved of by a majority of our residents, cannot find the resources to expend the mere thousands needed to keep and improve our pool without the arguments for its destruction that have ensued.  It's a pity that I can no longer with good conscience point out our local leaders to my children as the best examples of civic pride, preservation and development, that instead the world still boils down to the power and …

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