Glimmer of Hope for Aqua Park

Mayor James Sexton said the village would support any plan to re-open Aqua Park that has been shuttered since 2010.

Sexton said the private pool at 8956 S. Troy Ave. fell on hard times due to high maintenance costs, rising water rates, a few cold summers and the affordability of backyard pools.

In 2008, a child drowned while swimming popular swimming park.

Aqua Park also landed on a list of swimming pools and facilities that failed to meet state drain cover regulations in 2011, even though it had been foreclosed on the year before.

The bondholders went into foreclosure with the intent of turning the swim park over to a private operator.

Sexton told residents at the July 15 village board meeting that various private developers have since looked at the former recreation facility with the intent of reopening the once popular outdoor swim park for a daily fee.

He said the village has also explored the possibility of purchasing the former Aqua Park and running it under the village’s recreation department. The village currently uses the indoor pool at Evergreen Park Community High School for recreational swimming.

He said the 55-year-old building and facility needs a lot of work to bring it up to code .

“The mechanics need to be updated,” the mayor said. “It would have cost us $1 million to reopen it. We didn’t think it was a smart investment for the taxpayers.”

Currently, a potential buyer is doing due diligence on the old swim park that was founded in 1958.

“He’s looking at all the numbers to see if he can make a profit of it,” Sexton said.