Parents, Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation Want Permanent Swimming Pool

Image courtesy of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Photo by Etienne Frossard.

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — The Brooklyn Bridge Park pop-up pool is scheduled to close for good on Labor Day, but a group of Brooklyn Heights parents is trying to keep it open for summers to come.

So far, the organization has started an online petition and a Facebook group calling for a permanent pool at the park, which is funded through a combination of public and private money.

“Everybody has loved the pool,” said Amy Bieberdorf, a local mother of two four-year-olds who is working to keep the pool open.

Bieberdof said the pool teaches kids how to stay safe in the water, as well as offering low-cost swimming lessons. She also noted that there are “not many public pools in Brooklyn.”

Bieberdorf said that 40 families are currently involved in the effort to establish a permanent pool, but she expects hundreds of families to join in the cause.

Belinda Cape, Vice-President of Strategic Partnerships for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, told Patch that the issue comes down to money.

In an email, Cape wrote that the city initially committed to providing a “temporary pool in the Park for the duration of the summer season beginning in 2012 and continuing for the following four summers.”

“The temporary pool has been a great success," Cape said. "And although we do not have funding at this time for a full-size permanent pool, we look forward to working with our elected officials to secure the necessary funds to achieve this goal."