Splashy opening for new Onesty pool
The new pool at Meade Park opens June 20.FILE PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART
The Onesty Family Aquatic Center will be open for business June 20.
The new swimming pool, located at Meade Park, includes a lap pool, a large water slide, and a "lazy river" among other features. The facility can hold 225 people.
The city expects a busy opening weekend, with a press release informing patrons they “might experience a wait to enter the facility." The pool has 36 parking spots on site, along with street parking on Meade Ave. and Chesapeake St. The park is also on the bus line. City staff will be out to ensure a smooth opening.
““We’ll be watching the traffic situation,” says Will Bassett, business manager for the City’s Parks and Recreation Department.
The original Onesty Pool opened in 1975 and was demolished in late 2008 after a 2005 needs assessment determined operating the pool was not cost-effective.
The city in a press release said that the new pool project is well under budget. Bassett estimates that the total cost will be six or seven percent below the $3.8 million budget, but says final numbers still needed to be tabulated. Crews will work through the week putting the finishing touches on the pool,including spraying lines in the parking lot, putting out deck furniture, and setting up posts for lifeguards.
“We’re just trying to be ready for Saturday,” Bassett says. A ribbon cutting ceremony for the pool will take place at 9:30am, leading into the opening at 10am. Special activities for the day at Meade Park are being planned.
9 comments
Yes thanks, everything is solved now! Thanks to you, in the last hour everybody in Charlottesville and Albemarle has decided to ride the bus, and will no longer drive their cars to the pool.
i give it a season or two before it becomes a place where only the whitest of trash dare tread.
I don't think so, Matt. It's going to be the busiest of local city pools and will remain the busiest for many years to come. it's going to be Charlottesville's own little "Water Country". And I'm beginning to agree with the local residents.... traffic and parking is going to be a total nightmare for them for many years to come as well. Meade Avenue residents and Chesepeake Street residents need to petition the city for "permit parking" real quick or they aren't going to have anywhere to park.
NBC29 says the parking permits issue is one of the things being talked about to night @ city council.
But it's on a bus line... everything solved, right???
Unfortunately, there's lag time between the pool opening and when neighbors can get permits. Best of luck to them, they're going to need it.
The bigger question is this: Why, when this potential problem was repeatedly brought up during the planning process, was the issue not addressed until very recently? The City chose to put the biggest fanciest pool in one of the smaller neighborhood parks with the least potential for parking. They did this over the protests of the many local residents who merely wanted a pool, not a tacky plastic-filled Adventure Land.
Anybody who has a gastro illness, or whose child does, or whose child is in diapers, should not be using any public pool:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/health/16water.html?_r=1&em
I don't know if anyone has noticed, but they took a huge pool and ripped it up to put in a bunch of tiny shiny new spaces for kids to cram into. The large pool they had before wasn't big enough to accomodate all the guests. It's a cool idea, but it looks to me that it's going to be more hot concrete than water features.
I saw the big bucket splash water down today!