New Municipal Pool Design Includes Slides, 'Island Oasis'

Residents feeling nostalgic about the decades-old municipal pool should enjoy it this summer season. If all goes according to plan, borough officials say a completely redone pool will be ready in time for the summer 2014 swim season.

The design for the new pool is materializing. Wayne Wade of Wade Associates, the consultant Ramsey has commissioned to design the new pool, gave a presentation on the design possibilities at a borough council meeting earlier this month. According to Wade, the existing pool will be almost entirely eliminated, and contractors will fill the spot with the new pool.

Accessibility and versatility are driving the design, Wade said.

“There is something [in this pool] for everyone to do, ages 0 to 100,” he told the council.

So, the design boasts one pool sectioned off into different areas that each offer different depths, layouts, and components that allow for different types of swimming.

For competitive swim, the top of the pool has a regulation six-lane 25-meter pool.

For passive swimmers, the center of the pool has an, “island oasis,” area, with in-water benches and a palm tree that shoots water out.

A redesigned “tot” area is two feet deep, and could contain a number of kid-oriented water activities. Deeper areas incorporate open swim, the existing pools slide, which will be reused, and a new slide.

And, a new zero-depth entry leads into a one-foot deep area, which Wade said would be accessible to pool users in wheelchairs.

Plus, the whole pool would be heated.

According to Wade, about 95% of the pool design is complete, but some questions are still undecided, namely whether or not it should include a diving board.

Adding a diving board to the design would up the cost of the pool, and force designers to make the water deeper, Wade said. The pool would lose about two-thirds of its current swim space, which would be handed over to allow for dives.

The borough is estimating the pool redesign project will cost about $2 million. According to Wade, some of the swim activities in the pool schematic are separate. The estimate does not include some of the pool fixtures, but Wade said all the necessary wiring to power the equipment, whether it goes in now or later, will be installed.

According to borough officials, Ramsey is set to go out for a bid for the work from local contractors soon. The borough hopes to begin construction on the new pool as soon as school starts, and be finished with it in time for summer 2014 season.

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