LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A pool without water really defeats the purpose of being a pool.
“When it’s a hot day, there’s nothing like being in a pool, right?” said Stephen Ransdell, the director for Anderson Dean Community Park.
The pool at Anderson Dean has been closed since June 2023. Before that, it was closed for an extended period in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, among other issues.
“It wasn’t built correctly, and it wasn’t plumbed correctly,” Ransdell said. “I hope the community understands that we are taking the steps needed to fix it right.”
There were many steps to fix the pool properly. According to Ransdell, the pool has had minor issues off and on since opening in 2004.
After trying to fix the problems during their COVID closure, the pool reopened, but a major leak discovery forced it to close just a few days into its 2023 season.
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“We lost 1 million gallons in a week,” Ransdell said. “After that, we decided, we’re done with this patch, we’re done with hoping to get it right. We decided to get it right.”
“It wasn’t good on us, it wasn’t good on our community leaders, to hope that the pool would work properly. So we took care of that. We decided, when we lost that much water, hey, let’s break it down, let’s figure out what the problems are, and let’s fix it so we can get another 20, 25 years out of this project.”
The lengthy – and expensive – repairs met mixed reactions, but Ransdell believes the repairs are worthwhile.
“There’s nothing like bringing some kids out here and seeing them enjoy it, the laughs, the smiles. That’s what we want to do,” he said.
“We had an option to maybe fill it in. That was maybe something that some people wanted to do in the community. We never really thought about that at all.”
Despite the initial disappointment, Ransdell has seen just how much the pool has meant to the community.
“We know from comments that people care,” he said. “For that reason, we want to make sure that we have the best available option.”
Finding the best plans to renovate the pool may have been a long, arduous process that included a few more unforeseen delays. However, with confidence in his team working on the pool, Ransdell has hope the swimming saga will soon reach its end.
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“We’re going to be putting water in this pool, probably next Thursday or Friday,” Ransdell said. “Once that gets water in it, we’re going to run it for a couple of weeks. We don’t want to just get in here and get it started and maybe have some issues that we didn’t see. So we’re going to bring our staff in, were going to get them trained, we’re going to get them comfortable with what’s going on and how to operate things and run it. That’s just the protocol that we feel like we need to do after such a large undertaking.”
Ransdell has July 1 targeted as the date to reopen the pool.
“Being July the 4th week, yeah I think we’re going to be pushing capacity on that first week for sure.”
To find out more about the Anderson Dean Community Park pool and its hours, click here.
