Major Leaks Delay Opening of Crowley Park Pool
Residents near Dearborn’s Crowley Park pool will have to find a new place to swim until further notice because of major leaks in the pool’s pipes, Dearborn officials announced Friday.
The costs to repair the pool aren’t yet known but with the city budget already stressed, repairing pool pipes might prove to be too difficult of a task this fiscal year.
City officials say the leak in the Crowley Park pool had been identified and announced earlier this year but the extent of the damage could not be determined until the city began prepping it to open for the season. Two leaks in the hull of the pool were repaired earlier this month.
Dearborn says the new leaks are in the pipes and if not repaired would cause the loss of thousands of gallons of water each day and undermine the integrity of the pool deck. The leaks are in the pipes that are connected to the filtration system, which must be operating for swimmers to use the pool.
The city’s five other outdoor neighborhood pools will open as scheduled tomorrow, June 12. (Levagood and Ford Woods park pools already opened for the season.)
A more extensive evaluation of the situation at Crowley Park pool could take place as early as the week of June 14 by NSA, the engineering firm that has been working with the city to conduct general assessments of all Dearborn city pools.
The city will review NSA’s recommendations and potential cost for repairs before determining a course of action regarding the pool. These discussions will include the timeframe of the repairs and the pool’s possible reopening.
For more information about Crowley Park pool, as well as Dearborn’s seven other public pools, call the Recreation Department at 313-943-2350.
June 12th, 2010 at 11:00 am
This is the big boys way of paying back the Crowley area residents for screwing with him.
June 13th, 2010 at 7:48 am
Why couldent we not ask some of the city residents who do this kind of work to volunteer time and material to get this project done ?
June 13th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Couldn’t agree with u more Vincent. The Big Boy wants to push his power on residents — thats his style, however we won’t fall for it, as we are onto u big boy.
June 14th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
I think they want to close this pool on purpose and it’s a conspiracy!!! It’s the only other heated pool in dearborn besides Levagood. Yes, I still call it Levagood!! I bought my house in 1996 (don’t get me started on what it worth today) due to being close to Crowley park and my children being able to walk to the pool. Funny how this comes right after they wanted to close the pools there is a problem the day before it’s scheduled to open. Our neighborhood is already treated like we are on the other side of the tracks. We are last to get everything!! My boys need this pool as do the other kids in the Crowley Park area! Take this away and it’s the straw that broke the camels back. We have the highest concentration of Single and Divorced parents in any area of Dearborn. So how does the city propose a full time working single mom get her kids to the pool? I do not allow my kids to ride their bike to Levagood as they would need to cross Michigan avenue and Cherry hill, not to mention drive next to Telegraph. In addition Summer Stevens is out as they would need to cross Outer Drive. They need a pool in their own neighborhood not a car ride away!
June 14th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
I totally agree Momoof2Boys. I checked the Crowley Park pool today at 1pm and not a soul was in sight, no contractor, no city workers and the pool looked just like it did when I checked it Friday night at 11:30pm.
I always went and still go to Summer Stephens because it’s closer to home, but Crowley was always an alternative that I used from time to time. Since that Crowley subdivision is so far from the rest of the city and pools, it is a darn shame it is closed and I don’t blame you for being upset.
SOP (Save Our Pools) is looking and suggesting some volunteer contractors to the city as of today. Hopefully city leaders will listen…
June 14th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
SOP has been a guiding light of the dearborn pools and especially for me and my boys and Crowley pool. I’m a fan on facebook and follow you on Twitter too. Please let me know what I can do as well to help as I want to keep my boys active during the summer and off their video games. I really hope that the city leaders will listen and realize that this is in the best interest of their residents. I hope and pray that if there are people out there that will volunteer their time and expertise they take advantage of it. I will be a part of whatever it takes to help get this pool open again.
June 14th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Momof2Boys, I feel for you. I hope SOP can find someone to help. It seems a bit suspicious and if it is just a coincidence, they could at least let you know what they found out about cost, etc. Maybe Deep can find out for us?
June 14th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
I toured Crowley, Whitmore Bolles, Ten Eyck and Summer Stephens today. Besides contractors the city has chosen to fix the problem at Crowley, all the pools except Summer pool could use some help with scraping trim, ceilings and such, as they are all wonderful pools. Whitmore Bolles needs a lot of scraping and painting, and Ten Eyck needs a bit of scraping and painting work too. Crowley needs that filter/pressure issue fixes and it too looks like it needs a lot of work as well. At Summer Stephens many volunteers went and scraped and painted the trim, ceilings, bathrooms and more for the past 2 weeks. While we’re hardly experts, Summer Stephens is most likely in the best shape it has been in years, if not decades. It’s hard work, but it gives one a feeling of accomplishment in doing something for pool facilities that many of us cherish.
June 15th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Albano you must believe in Santa Claus, if u think you are going to get the things that need to get done for nothing, even O’Reilly is laughing at u and SOP. Get with it its all a big game, and its a game u and your people r going to lose, as he believes your next step is giving up.
June 16th, 2010 at 5:54 am
ali – there must be a LOT of us who believe in Santa. We’ll see who gets the last laugh.
June 16th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Ali – there is an entire neigborhood of people that believe in Santa and that is because Neighbors helping neighbors is just one thing that makes Dearborn a great place to live!!! My nieghbors in the Crowley Park area are just that! We have put a lot of sweat and tears into that pool over the years. We will not let our pool go without a fight!!
June 17th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Hearing from people all over the City the last few months and beyond – ‘We get it’.
‘We get it’ that as a neighborhood and community we want safe places for our kids and familes to go to and play.
‘We get it’ that we all cannot take things for granted, as we have in the past, and must look at every option to keep those that are valued to us, stay with us.
‘We get it’ that we don’t have to have these neighborhood pools brand new and excessive. We value what we.
‘We get it’ by linking the community, businesses and City together, we can ease the burden of the current crisis and survive better than similar times in the past. .
‘We get it’ that strong neighborhoods, produce a strong community.
We get it…
June 18th, 2010 at 6:17 am
Ali,
We had something better than Santa for decades – the benevolence of Ford Motor Company that literally financed almost the entire infrastructure of Dearborn. As much as I was in awe of Hubbard’s creativeness in the day, he couldn’t have done it without Ford paying the overwhelming majority of the taxes. Today Ford pays approximately 1/4 the taxes it used to pay due to the state changing the tax formula, which means we still have to somehow maintain all this recreation, amenities and services with much less money.
Despite the fact that some of us, including myself don’t agree with everything the city does, despite the fact that times are tough all over, especially in the town that Ford built, Dearborn has one huge asset that many other cities wish they had – extremely involved citizens. When it is time to rally, when the city needs help, when it affects our populace, Dearborn is one of few towns I’m aware of that has citizens who are willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to help and/or save things that many cherish.
SOP is one of the newest groups who care about our children as well as adults that love our wonderful outdoor pools. As far as I’m concerned the neighbors that use Crowley, Ten Eyck, Summer Stephens and Whitmore-Bolles (to name a few), are people that make Dearborn special. Now that Santa/Ford/Dearborn is in need of help, these wonderful volunteers have become Santa’s helpers and we should be proud of their efforts.
Overcoming obstacles doesn’t happen overnight, but instead takes little steps from the populace, which is what SOP and other groups are doing for Dearborn. Despite some setbacks, many of us believe that SOP and other groups have faith and hope and they are taking action, instead of simply whining and complaining about it. There is a good chance their efforts will eventually succeed long term at saving the pools, as they did saving them for at least another year. I am extremely proud of all of these volunteers and they are what STILL makes Dearborn a wonderful, unique community, a community that I will take any day over any other community in the Metro Detroit area or in America.
And yes Ali, I still believe in Santa and Santa’s helpers.
June 19th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Would have been a nice day to bring the family to the local pool at Crowley Pk., but a number of residents who were in the park said, we won’t get the pool fixed anytime soon, because Orner (Rec. Dept.) was on orders from O’Reilly to take as long as he has to, to have the pool fixed, he needs to show SOP who the boss actually is.
June 19th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
rick, O’Reilly has to remember just how many people were organized to help SOP’s and still participate. A lot of these people are “registered voters” and may just have to show city hall who is the BOSS.
June 20th, 2010 at 8:58 am
I hope that rick’s assessment is incorrect about O’Reilly and and Orner. I hope that they both do the right thing and take the proper action to fix this pool pronto, since they gave us their word that ALL pools would open for at least this swim season. The setbacks at Crowley may be legitimate, but since SOP has informed me that last season the city set aside $40,000 (a huge chunk of change) to fix all and any problems at this pool, the pool should open THIS season, plain and simple, period.
Since reputations are on the line here, since a persons word and especially a leaders word is supposed to be their bond, we will soon know if our leaders are going to live up to their word about Crowley. If they do not, then as much harm as it may do to us pool lovers, it will do more harm to our leaders in the short and long term, in my opinion.
June 20th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Is it possible our city leaders are confusing the “Save Our Pools” SOP acronym with that other one—“Standard Operating Procedure”?
June 20th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Good one All Day Mom. 🙂 Save our Services (SOP) was the slogan that Councilman Bob Abraham used in his re-election campaign he won last year. That’s my guess as to the confusion…
June 21st, 2010 at 6:49 am
It would also be the right thing to do by leaders that if/when the Crowley Park pool is fixed and finally opened, that the pool stay open longer (past the regular swim season), equal to the days of the swim season it was closed.
June 21st, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Michael – this probably isn’t possible because I would assume that most of the lifeguards will have to return to school.
June 21st, 2010 at 6:31 pm
I’m quite sure there are enough lifeguards to keep the pool open. With the poor economy a lot more students are attending college closer to home and there are a lot of guards still in high school that will be off until Labor Day. That whole close the pools early thing started when Dearborn kids went back to school in August but they never bothered to change it when we returned to the Labor Day schedule. Crowley should be on the list as one of the pools to stay open longer anyway since it has a heater. Something that I think should be noted in our recreation brochure. I think getting the word out that Crowley is heated would attract more swimmers on cooler days.
June 21st, 2010 at 6:59 pm
It would be possible now. The pools closing early thing started when the Dearborn kids returned to school in August. They just never changed it when we switched back to going back to school after Labor Day.
Also, a lot of kids are going to college close to home now because of the poor economy. There are also a lot of guards still in high school that could guard.
Crowley should be on the list to stay open anyway because it has a heater. Something that should be noted in the recreation brochure. If more people knew it was heated it would attract swimmers to Crowley on the cooler days.
June 22nd, 2010 at 11:37 am
If the Crowley pool heater works that would be great. In fact, if my other fav pool closes on schedule then I’d visit Crowley. And yes, I agree the city should go back to the old schedule of keeping small pools open since school no longer starts in August.
June 25th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Visited Crowley again today and the pool water is 99% clear, the cut out areas have been prepped to be refilled and the Rebar is in. Looks like all it requires now is the cement pour and it can open.