Fort Worth’s Forest Park Pool reopens for summer after $15M renovation. Take a look
Fort Worth celebrated the reopening of its oldest public pool on Friday.
It comes after a year-long $15 million renovation and an intense lobbying effort by residents to retain the pool’s 50-meter long design.
“I believe this pool is just as important as a fire station or a police station,” said Mayor Mattie Parker, who spoke at Friday’s event.
Pools are about community, and Forest Park will be a place where the community can come together, she said.
Councilmember Elizabeth Beck, whose district includes the pool, recalled a tense meeting in September 2021 when residents gathered to voice their discontent at a previously proposed design that would have reduced the pool to 25-meters long.
She credited those residents with improving the quality of Forest Park Pool as well as public pools across the city.
Beck and Parker celebrated the pool’s opening by jumping in with fellow councilmembers Jeanette Matinez, Alan Blaylock and Chris Nettles.
Residents celebrated keeping the 50-meter long pool as it will increase the opportunity to teach swim lessons and hold competitions.
Some are still advocating for more pools citing state statistics that show Tarrant County regularly has the second highest number of drownings annually in Texas.
Fort Worth currently has three public pools for a population nearing one million people. Arlington, Texas, with a population roughly a third the size of Fort Worth, has nearly three times as many public pools.
Fort Worth needs 41 more public pools to pull even with Austin, said Chris Reed who was a leader in the campaign to maintain the 50-meter length of Forest Park Pool.
Reed celebrated the pool’s opening, but said the city can still do more.
The city has $8.2 million from the 2022 Bond to build a new aquatics center in the Stop Six neighborhood, and is currently working on an update to its Aquatics Master Plan, which could call for an expansion in the number of public pools.
In addition to keeping the 50-meter lap pool, the new facility includes an updated bath house, water slide and a children’s pool that slopes down to 3.5 feet deep.
Saturday will be the first full day of operation with the pool open from noon to 6 p.m. Admission will cost $6 for adults, $5 for children, and $4 for seniors, veterans and active duty military, according to the city’s website.
The pool will be open only on weekends for the next three weeks, and then every day except Mondays between June 11 and Labor Day Weekend.
