Garfield Park Pool closed for maintenance; residents concerned about its future

INDIANAPOLIS — During this time of the year, the pool can be an oasis for people looking to cool off.

Garfield Park is one of the most popular pools that Indy Parks runs. It’s typically packed in the summer, but the picture below shows that is not the case.

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The pool is currently closed, which has people who live in the area concerned about its future.

"On a hot day, we go to this pool to take our kids there and relax,” Matt Duffy, who lives near Garfield Park, said. “It's the only pool I've ever taken my kid to.”

Indy Parks says the pool is closed for maintenance issues. They noticed them when they went to open it up for the season.

"There is an issue with the liner and leaks so that's prohibited us from safely opening the pool,” Alex Cortwright with Indy Parks said.

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Indy Parks currently has 13 pools open. Maintenance issues are also preventing Willard Park Pool, Riverside Park Pool and Martin Luther King Jr. Pool from opening.

The severity of the issues with Garfield Park Pool has yet to be determined.

"We didn't arrive at an exact number at this point, just because we are still working on figuring all of that out,” Cortwright said. “We are hoping it will be a substantial investment that we can make that will have a long term impact on the pool.”

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Indy Parks says their goal is to open Garfield park pool next summer. They don't intend to close it again.

However, residents like Duffy are concerned that the city didn't check Garfield Park Pool sooner. That is why he started a petition urging the city to allocate funding to get the pool fixed as soon as possible.

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"It's raised some concerns to us on why they haven't done preventative maintenance to fix this,” Duffy said. “They have had several months in their off seasons where they could have done maintenance on this to get the pool up and running for the kids."

Indy Parks says if the damage to the pool isn't extensive, it could open later this summer. If that's not the case, Indy Parks may need to ask the city to allocate more money to fix the issue.

Indy parks is trying to determine the cost to fix the pool at Garfield Park. For the a list of pools and splash pads that are open, click here.