Public pool unlikely to be built for south Gilbert

By Tom Blodgett
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Gilbert residents have indicated to the town they have a strong interest in an additional aquatics facility in town, but it may not be coming from the parks and recreation department. 

While not ruling a town facility out, Gilbert Town Council members have expressed a reluctance to bring another pool online within its parks portfolio, citing costs. 

“They're very expensive to build,” Mayor Brigette Peterson said. “They're very expensive to run.” 

Indeed, the town estimates it would cost $58.42 million to build a pool to serve south Gilbert. And then there would be the ongoing maintenance, including chemicals, and appropriate staffing, an additional challenge. 

But the demand is there. Gilbert residents identified a south Gilbert recreation center and pool as their No. 2 parks priority behind completion of Gilbert Regional and Desert Sky parks this year when the town surveyed residents in preparation for a new parks master plan. 

Gilbert has intergovernmental agreements with the three school districts serving the town that permit the town to run aquatics programs at school pools while school is out. Those pools are at Williams Field and Perry high schools and Mesquite and Greenfield junior high schools. 

But access to those pools has grown limited as each of the three districts has moved over time to a shorter summer vacation with new school years starting in mid to late July. 

Meanwhile, demand is up. Parks and Recreation Director Robert Carmona reported to council that registration for aquatics programming is up 63% in a five-year span. Spaces are maxed out. 

Some council members at a workshop this month in which they considered capital improvement project priorities said they hoped the private sector would help fill the void. Cost recovery also was frequently mentioned as a concern. 

Council Member Yung Koprowski noted the presence of privately owned Golfland/Sunsplash nearby in Mesa, a coming public aquatics facility in Queen Creek, plus Cactus Surf Park, a public/private partnership planned for opening at Gilbert Regional Park in fall 2025. Another privately owned water park is planned for Mesa along Power Road.  

Koprowski contrasted the entry fee of more than $25 at Golfland/Sunsplash to what a public facility charges. 

“I went to a kid's birthday party that was using a Mesa aquatic center, and those entrance fees are only $3,” she said. “And I understand that there's some subsidy there, and there's providing that service, but I feel like I would only be supportive of an aquatic center if we're going to get that cost recovery that's more aligned with market conditions.” 

Vice Mayor Kathy Tilque and council members Scott Anderson, Chuck Bongiovanni and Jim Torgeson expressed similar sentiments. 

One council member did advocate for a pool, as well as a recreation center, to come to south Gilbert: Bobbi Buchli. 

“We need those down there,” she said. “I get calls quite often from parents that have children that they want to be Olympic swimmers, but there's nowhere for them to swim. We need an Olympic pool. If we have an aquatic center out there, we need something where these kids can train as well as go and play.” 

She argued that residents from north Gilbert also would come to such a facility, as they do now to use Gilbert Regional Park. 

Peterson recalled that plans at Freestone Park in north Gilbert once called for a pool and worried that residents in that part of town would remember that if one now came to south Gilbert. 

“I think it's very difficult to say, ‘OK, now today we're going to build this down in south Gilbert because the residents are asking for it,’” she said. “What happened to the residents that have been here in north Gilbert for two decades that didn't get the aquatic facility? There's a balance there.” 

We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X. 

Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert

tblodgett@iniusa.org

Meet Tom
Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.

Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.

Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism. 

Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.  

Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).