Yes, Congress Park Pool will shut down in 2020 while they build a bigger, better pool

Now’s your chance to lobby for a diving board.
1 min. read
Dog-a-Pool-ooza at Cook Park Pool, Aug. 13, 2017. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

When it's hot out, pool-closing rumors are scary rumors. But there's good news for anyone who heard Congress Park Pool will shutter for good at the end of the season.

The waterhole at Eighth Avenue and Josephine Street will close, but only temporarily to make way for a bigger, better one funded by voters as part of the 2017 "Elevate Denver" bond.

Construction will begin in 2020 with an opening date that same year, "pending no unforeseen maintenance issues," Denver Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Cyndi Karvaski said.

Congress Park Pool has been around since 1955, making it one of the city's oldest outdoor chlorine ponds for humans (and sometimes dogs). Yearly maintenance costs are a drain on city resources, Craig Coronato, a supervisor of landscape architecture for the parks and rec department, told Denverite last month.

The city will replace the main pool, the kiddie pool, the bathhouses and picnic areas with new versions "that better meet the needs of the public and staff," according to city documents.

Locals can weigh in -- aka lobby for diving boards -- during a public meeting from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 12 at 850 Elizabeth St.

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