CITY TO OPEN NEW SWIMMING POOL AND GYM ON UWS; CHEAP ANNUAL DUES

By Clare Marash

The Gertrude Ederle Recreation Center at 60th and Amsterdam is on schedule to reopen late this month after years of renovations. Upper West Siders have been waiting since 2009 to take a dip in the pool and work out in the gym.

The site first opened as a public bath in 1906. In 1943, an outdoor pool was added to the facility but it closed in 1990 due to a crack. Since that time, Upper West Siders have been negotiating alterations to the site, including raising $15 million for renovations through both public and private funding. Mel Wymore, former chair of Community Board 7 and long-time chair of the 59th St Rec Center Task Force, said reopening the rec center is “a huge success in terms of community involvement.”

The indoor facility, including an indoor pool, improved gym and cardio rooms, space for aerobics and fitness classes, a youth activities room, and computer room—is tentatively scheduled to open late this month. The outdoor area will be under construction for another eighteen months to two years. Membership to the facility costs $150 per year for adults and $25 per year for seniors. Youth membership is free. (When the city broke ground, officials said adults could pay $75. They also expected to be finished in 2011.)

Despite the excitement, some issues still need to be worked out.

The latest controversy regarding the Gertrude Ederle Rec Center, named for the first woman to swim across the English Channel, focuses on the city’s lifeguard training program. The city hires around 1,200 lifeguards each season for its parks and beaches. Prior to its closure, the 59th Street Rec Center housed the training program, a major source of complaint for neighborhood residents. Currently running out of the Chelsea Recreation Center, the lifeguard training program requires 40 hours of instruction, and allows participants access to all of the city’s 11 public pools for practice.

According to Wymore, during the spring and summer months trainees have classes at the pool four hours a day, in two two-hour sessions. One of the compromises Community Board 7 has proposed to the Department of Parks and Recreations is to consolidate those sessions into a single three-hour class. The board has also proposed splitting the training between two facilities or potentially postponing the transition to the Gertrude Ederle Rec Center until a new agreement has been reached. The Department of Parks and Recreation and the Community Board are still in discussion, although Wymore noted that the department appeared “determined to relocate the whole program.” The Parks Department didn’t get back to us with a comment about the controversy prior to publication.

Community Board 7 and the Department of Parks and Recreation both recognize the importance of lifeguards and sufficient training. Wymore said the goal is not to block the training but to find a way to “maximize resources” so that the community, long- longing for the pool, has sufficient access.