Politics Gets in the Middle of a Good Swim
By Dan Murphy
For the seventh summer in eight years, Westchester residents, families and children who live near the Sprain Ridge Pool in Yonkers will be out of luck. County Executive George Latimer made the announcement last week that the $7.7 Million reconstruction of the pool included shoddy work performed too quickly, resulting in the pool’s closure for another summer.
Latimer is not to blame for the pool’s closure, after just taking office last November and not having served in County government for more than 15 years. A recent guest with John Murtagh on WVOX 1460 AM, Latimer said that an investigation was underway to determine how the capital improvements could have gone so wrong, and that the county was looking into getting insurance payments or reimbursements for the faulty worked performed, which has resulted in a major pipeline burst below one of the large pools at Sprain Ridge.
The statement from the county reads: “The Westchester Department of Public Works has deemed the Sprain Ridge activity pool not structurally sound to open for the 2018 season summer season. Along with the activity pool, the county Parks Department will also keep the spray deck and the bath house closed for the season. The Parks Department and the Department of Public Works have already begun addressing the structural issues with the activity pool, and will begin work on the new recreation/competition pool in July.”
“The reality is that this pool should not have been opened,” said Latimer. “It should have been checked and double-checked to make sure it was in proper working order before it opened. The construction of the pool was very rushed, and the end product shows it. We are now going to take the proper time needed to fix the activity pool and construct the recreation/competition pool properly.”
The structural issues at the activity pool stem from the speed and unattainable schedule at which the pool was originally constructed by the contractor. A pool of that size typically takes 12 to 15 months from demolition to opening; the Sprain Ridge activity pool was completed in six months.
The main concern is ruptured pipes found underground during the procedure to fill the pool for the season. When construction began, it was determined that the existing pool pipes were made with asbestos and that the soil was unsuitable to hold the structure. The work was done with such haste that the pool was not properly constructed and materials didn’t have enough time to cure. The rush job was done under pressure from the Astorino Administration to open the pool for the 2017 season.
Further, the extreme weather conditions of 2017-18 exacerbated these issues. Even with these precautions, when the activity pool was opened for the season, it was discovered that pipes under the pool had ruptured.
“We are having continuous repairs done on the activity pool,” said DPW Commissioner Hugh Greechan. “Workers were out here this morning fixing the drains under the pool that cracked during the severe winter season.”
Parks Commissioner Kathy O’Connor added: “Having the activity pool at Sprain closed is an inconvenience to the public. Camps that had gone to Sprain Pool last year will be accommodated at Saxon Woods Pool in White Plains. Additionally, the Family Fun Day scheduled for Sprain Pool on Saturday, July 7 will now be held at Tibbetts Brook Pool also in Yonkers.”
To state that the pool’s closure for the year is an “inconvenience” is an understatement. To have a county pool in Westchester, one of the richest counties in the country, closed for seven out of the last eight years points to a failure in our county government and a failure in our ability for our government to deliver the capital improvements that the taxpayers have paid for.
The real culprit in the failures at Sprain Ridge Pool are when our politicians get involved in our government and use capital projects as pawns. Some believe that a six-year feud between former County Executive Rob Astorino and County Legislator and now Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins is at the root of the closure of Sprain Ridge Pool for so long.
Jenkins served as chairman of the County Board of Legislators for two years while Astorino was County Executive. The two were “at each other’s throats,” as one legislator described their relationship to us at the time, with Jenkins suing Astorino’s government, and Astorino responded, many believed, by denying Jenkins the capital funds to repair and open Sprain Ridge Pool.
The anger between the two continued, year after year, and with every passing year, the pool remained unrepaired and unopen, likely causing more structural damage. Last year, Astorino pushed through a construction project for the pool that had it opened last summer, in the middle of his re-election for a third term.
And while Latimer has not pointed the finger directly at Astorino, and while Latimer has appointed a new DPW commissioner, the implication and quiet blame is being pointed at Astorino.
“Astorino didn’t want to repair Sprain Ridge Pool-he didn’t feel like spending the money. Part of it was a cost savings measure, and it part because of Jenkins, who wanted to expand that pool and create a water park. It dragged on for years, but as time went on, Astorino spent on other projects, like the Ice rink at Kensico Dam, without fixing Sprain Ridge,” said one county insider.
“The pool was offered to Yonkers for $1 so that the county wouldn’t have to pay for the repairs. Some legislators pushed Astorino to fix the pool, including Legislators Burrows and Shimsky, and he finally did it during his re-election year.”
The hyper-partisanship between Astorino, Jenkins and other members of the county board, are also a factor in what is now a failure in county government. “Why didn’t a group of legislators come together and demand that the pool be repaired year’s ago,” said Fred Silver, who used the pool for year’s back in 2010. “Yonkers has four county legislators, where were they for us?
Yonkers has four county legislators representing Westchester’s largest city on the County Board. Two legislators from Yonkers, Gordon Burrows and Virginia Perez, have served for the years that the pool has been closed. Legislator David Tubiolo and Christopher Johnson joined the board after the damage to the pool had been done.
But other legislators from neighborhing communities, whose residents use the pool, could also have stepped forward. They could have used their political clout, and their vote on the county budgets, to require the pool be fixed first.
Sprain Ridge Pool is not just a “Yonkers pool,” it is used by residents of Greenburgh and Scarsdale, and from residents across the county. Its convenient location, just off the Sprain and Saw Mill River parkways, make it accessible to all. This reporter used to use the pool with my family 10 years ago, before politics got in the middle of a good swim.
But the anti-Yonkers sentiment on the pools closure for so long could be another factor. We have asked this question in the past—if this pool were in Rye or Yorktown or Mt. Pleasant, would it have been allowed to stay closed and unrepaired for so long?
Although nobody is coming out and saying it, right now the blame is on Astorino for this capital project disaster. “Rob rushed it in time for his re-election. There are extensive emails between the contractor hired for the job, explaining to someone (in the Astorino administration) that the job couldn’t be done in time. The response from the county was –Get it Done!”
Another failed capital project in the county, at Memorial Field in Mt. Vernon, has some of the same issues of politicians getting involved in, and destroying, an asset for the people they claim to represent. And if our county government, and Mt. Vernon government cannot tell its taxpayers and constituents who is to blame for these disasters, perhaps it is time for Westchester District Attorney Anthony Scarpino to intervene, and tell us what really happened.
