Pool slide now included in $14M project in New Hyde Park

Following months of deliberation, the town of North Hempstead has again revised plans for a roughly $14 million renovation of the pool facility at Clinton G. Martin Park in New Hyde Park.

The latest plans call for a reduction in the size of the kiddie pool and the addition of a pool slide with a separate basin. Building a slide had emerged as a divisive issue at previous public meetings.

Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said Tuesday that the revised plan addressed both the concerns of residents who sought more attractions for children and those who wanted to ensure a slide was not located in the main pool.

“The goal was to try to find a way to address all those needs as best as possible, and I think this does it,” Bosworth said.

The town spent the summer refining plans for the facility’s renovation after assessing community feedback at multiple public meetings and surveying 13,000 households in the New Hyde Park Special Park District.

Plans were scaled back from an original $15 million proposal presented in May, which called for replacing the pool’s aging infrastructure, creating a slide in the main pool and renovating the facility with new locker rooms and more.

Last month, the town presented a $13.6 million plan which retained most of the facility improvements but notably eliminated a pool slide. Many residents spoke in support of building a slide to appeal to children and to boost the park’s ebbing membership.

The slide will tack on about $200,000 to the $13.6 million plan, Bosworth said. The kiddie pool will be reduced from 9,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet to accommodate an adjacent basin for the slide.

The new design has yet to be finalized, but the town will not hold another community meeting, Town officials said. Initial community feedback has been positive, Bosworth said.

“The community is excited to learn there will be the addition of a slide,” Marianna Wolgemuth, a member of the New Hyde Park Park District Advisory Committee, said in a news release. The relocation of the slide away from the main pool is a win-win for the entire community.”

The slide will not delay the project’s timetable, which calls for renovations to be completed by June 2018, Bosworth said.