State Says Weehawken Must Offer Pool Day Passes To All NJ Residents

HOBOKEN, NJ — Will Weehawken offer day passes to all New Jersey residents for their new pool complex on the waterfront? The state Department of Environmental protection said this week that they need to provide the option.

After Hoboken residents fought for months last summer to have access to the new, partly-state funded Weehawken complex a mile away from their town, they and others in New Jersey were finally allowed in at the end of last summer, as well as this June.

But beginning June 23, season passes are required for entry to the Weehawken pool complex starting at $200 for the summer — and that's still running afoul of New Jersey rules, the state said this week.

In an email sent Monday to a Hoboken father who has been inquiring about pool access, Maude Snyder of the state Department of Environmental Protection, which administers state Green Acres funding, said Monday:

"We are aware of the issue, and you are correct that when season passes are offered to the public for Green Acres’ funded parks, our rules say that daily or single use passes must also be offered. I contacted the Weehawken Manager about this on 6/6. Green Acres’ rules don’t speak to the details of offering daily passes and we would consider a request from Weehawken to limit daily passes to a reasonable number or portion of the pool’s total capacity. But, we haven’t heard back from them."

Dozens of Hoboken residents have taken to social media in recent months to ask about access to the sparkling new Weehawken complex, as officials in Hoboken — located a mile from the pool on the waterfront — have promised for decades to build a public pool for residents, without delivering.

And even Weehawken residents said they were frustrated with the lack of information, with some starting a petition.

The city of Hoboken is the only municipality contiguous to Weehawken that lacks a public pool for its residents.

Over Memorial Day, 308 of the 906 people who used the new pool that day were Hoboken residents, Mayor Richard Turner recently told NJ.com.

During the summer of 2022, Hoboken residents kept asking for access to the complex, and were finally granted permission to visit the pool in mornings in August.

Weehawken Town Administrator Gio Ahmad told Patch last month that for summer 2023, the pool would be open to all New Jersey residents for free through June 23. But the town's subsequent announcement of a season pass-only system received criticism from some Hoboken residents as well as some in Weehawken.

Weehawken residents can use the pool for the season starting at $100 per adult, and kids under 18 are free. For Hoboken residents, the fee is $200 per adult. The fees are consistent with DEP rules about fees for residents and out-of-towners.

Weehawken's Recreation Department also offers swim lessons for children in their town in order to promote water safety, via a low-cost camp in partnership with the North Jersey YMCA.

The town also has contracted with the Weehawken Swim Association (Weehawkenswim.org) to offer lessons for residents of the town and contiguous towns at the pool.

Will Hoboken Officials Respond?

After the seasonal fees were announced this month, some residents said the fees are cost prohibitive, as those in other towns may only want to visit the pool occasionally. They said there should be affordable daily rates.

"The green acre rules requiring day passes be available makes sense and is reasonable," said Andrew Strobel, a Hoboken dad, this week. "Given the pool was partially funded with taxes paid by all NJ residents, it is only fair that day passes be available to residents who can’t afford a season pass or only want to use the pool a few times during the summer."

The new complex was partly built with state Green Acres funds, and thus has to be available to all New Jersey residents and follow other Green Acres rules.

Last year, when Hoboken residents were finally allowed into the pool for mornings in August, several city officials thanked each other as well as Weehawken's mayor, which drew some jeers.

Patch has reached out to Hoboken City Hall over the last six weeks to see if local officials have advocated for more pool access this year.

On Tuesday, city spokesperson Marilyn Baer said, "The administration has reached out to Weehawken to ensure residents have access to the pool and will continue to advocate on behalf of residents. The City continues to partner with Stevens Institute if Technology to ensure residents can access their pool year-round through several membership options."

Residents in Hoboken have long expressed frustrations, through several Hoboken mayoral administrations, with repeated promises and failures to build a pool or provide pool access. The city has floated future development plans that may include a pool in 2020, 2021, and again just last month.

The city's Recreation Division was given access to the Hoboken High School pool by the public school district last year — for all families, not just in the public schools — and the city offered it to residents with limited hours.

'Today I Was Turned Away'

Some area residents have suggested that it's dangerous for a town to not promote water safety to families in an affordable way.

"Today I was turned away from entering a public pool in Weehawken New Jersey," wrote a Facebook user on Sunday. (The Weehawken pool has had long lines on recent weekends.) "Although it's understandable to keep some restrictions on who uses this public facility, it got me to realize how few of these public pools exist ... failure to swim causes numerous casualties especially in young children. Public investments in pools may be more useful than building another mall or wholefoods."

A local mom has begun a petition for Hoboken to find ways to have affordable swim lessons for local kids and plan a pool as a stand-alone project, rather than part of a large development. She has garnered more than 600 signatures so far.

She wrote, "As two educators from NJ noted in a NJ.com op-ed recently, urban areas need their own community pools and low-cost swimming lessons to save lives. Weehawken now has a fantastic pool complex and offers low-cost lessons."

City Council candidate Ian Rintel has suggested a Hoboken shuttle to take residents to free Hudson County pools further away, such as the pools in Union City, which are open to all county residents. He said recently that he has not heard from any officials yet in response to his proposal.

"The rates for the Weehawken pool and the fact that there is no daily option exclude those of less means, those who do not live near the pool, and those who are only interested in occasional pool use," he said, about the latest developments.

Read Patch's past coverage of the fight for a pool in Hoboken, the new Weehawken pool, and related issues here.