Glendale’s Pacific Pool now open year round
Fall has brought cooler temperatures, but Glendale’s Pacific Community Pool will remain a comfortable 83-ish degrees.
It’s the first time the pool’s lanes will stay open this October — and for the rest of the year — following a decision by Glendale officials to fund an expansion of the city’s aquatics program.
Previously, the pool operated from Memorial Day weekend until the end of September.
“My hope is that the community sees this as an added quality-of-life benefit, whether it’s for their own physical fitness or for instructional learning purposes — or the camaraderie that goes along with being part of [one of our teams],” said Courtney Maglio, who has operated the city’s aquatics program since it launched 19 years ago, in a recent phone interview.
In early June, Glendale City Council members voted to allocate an additional $560,000 to the program’s approximately $489,000 budget so it could operate year round. The money is coming from a voter-approved local sales tax increase, which was billed as a measure to fund quality-of-life-type services.
The city expects a revenue increase of about $137,000 from the expanded programming, said Onnig Bulanikian, Glendale’s director of community services and parks, during a budget meeting in May. He added that there will also be increased opportunities to rent out the facility, located at 509 S. Pacific Ave.
“It’s going to give — not just our kids, but adults and seniors — the opportunity to have a great municipal pool that will be offering very important programs,” including swim lessons and aquatic fitness classes, Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian said in a phone interview last week.
According to Najarian, the pool also happens to be located in a portion of the city that lacks an abundance of parks and recreational opportunities.
“We’re sensitive to the fact that people in the most congested part of the city need recreational programs,” he said.
The current Pacific pool was built in 2011. A previous one was demolished in 2000, not long after the aquatics program was founded, leaving the city without a municipal pool in the interim.
When the city had no municipal pool, it relied on local high schools’ pools to run its aquatics program, Bulanikian said.
Since opening, the pool has been a big draw for local residents and those from nearby communities, according to both Maglio and Najarian.
On a recent early Wednesday afternoon, Maglio counted six lap swimmers in the six-lane, 25-yard pool.
Its youth swim team, the Glendale Gators, and water polo team, the Glendale Polo Bears, each have about 25 members, Maglio said.
Now, both teams can continue to meet three times a week in the pool even though the competitive summer season has ended, she added.
With the local weather skewing warm, it makes the pool a logical perennial go-to, according to Gabrielle Goglia, a senior supervisor with the city’s community services department.
“In Southern California, it doesn’t get that cold. All year round, [visitors] can stay fit and enjoy recreational activities,” she said.
The pool is also heated between 82 and 84 degrees, according to Bulanikian.
A still-in-the-works event to celebrate the expanded program will be held later this fall. Details will be posted at glendaleaquatics.org.