FLORENCE, Ky. — The city of Florence has put plans to demolish its Aquatic Center on hold, and is now seeking public input to decide what to do next.

The pool, featuring towering waterslides and a sprawling lazy river, has been expensive for the city to maintain. A group of citizens, large enough for the city to take notice, is now fighting to keep the aquatic center open.

Jenna Kemper said she’s been bringing her kids there for almost 10 years, for swim meets, and just to cool off and have fun on hot summer days.

Jenna Kemper said she’s been bringing her kids there for almost 10 years, for swim meets, and just to cool off and have fun on hot summer days. (Spectrum News 1/Sam Knef)

“There’s nothing like this in Northern Kentucky, actually. The only municipal pool in the area. Nothing like this in Boone County. It serves a large portion of Northern Kentucky.” she said. “Families need this now more than ever with getting through a pandemic. Going to a place like this in the open air, sunshine and chlorine.”

The aquatic center hasn’t been open for two years.

In 2020, it never opened because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision that Kemper said people could understand.

Earlier this year, City Councilman Kelly Huff said it wasn’t worth the risk of opening due to the potential of COVID-19 restrictions in Kentucky changing midsummer. He said the pool is also hard to staff when the teenagers who typically make up the staff go back to school.

In fact, Huff said, the city was ready to shut the aquatic center down permanently due to how costly it was to operate. It’s open about 10 weeks a year and costs on average $7,500 per day during that time to maintain, according to the city.

“Over the last three years, on average, the pool cost us about $300,000 to operate,” Huff said. “At the end of the day, you have money coming in and money going out. And $300,000 difference between the two, that we’ve got to make up and take out of the budget.”

He also said the pool is used by relatively few people.

“Less than 5% of the citizens in the city of Florence actually utilize the pool,” Huff said. “Is this the best allocation of our resources? The pool’s only open for nine to 10 weeks out of the year.”

There's been public outcry from people like Kemper, who don’t want to see the pool go. There was even a protest outside the aquatic center. (Spectrum News 1/Sam Knef)

Florence City Council had voted unanimously to demolish the pool with the idea of replacing it with a four-acre park which could potentially feature a splash pad, concert venue and reception hall.

Huff said meetings during which the pool was discussed were not highly attended leading up to the vote, and that some people felt blindsighted.

“To me, it’s a no-brainer that we’re gonna have something that way more than 5% of the people, of the citizens of Florence, are gonna use. And instead of nine to 10 weeks out of the year, we’ll be able to use it nine to 10 months out of the year,” Huff said.

But there’s been public outcry from people like Kemper, who don’t want to see the pool go. There was even a protest outside the aquatic center. The response led to council halting demolition, and eventually putting out a survey in Sept. asking what people want.

“Finally I feel like they’re listening. By putting this survey out, it’s a fair process for them to be asking what the city really wants,” Kemper said. “I think people are upset because when it’s really hot, you want to come and cool off, and spend time with your family in a facility like this. Nobody wants to go down a hot slide in the middle of the summer.”

Longer hours, sectioning off parts of the pool when staffing is low and dipping into federal stimulus money are ideas Kemper said people have come up with to offset costs. 

“So there’s lots of ways to bring in revenue,” she said. “And they talk about the deficit, but how can we help bring in more money?”

She also suggested the city could use some of its reserve money, but Huff said that’s money the city will eventually need to use elsewhere.

Huff said if the survey results are representative of the whole city, he doesn’t see the plans changing. Though, he said he’s afraid only people passionate about the pool will respond.

“I think if we get a good survey, and a survey that we know that people weren’t trying to cheat, because there’s people out there that will do that, that are that passionate about it. If we can get true results, I don’t see how most people are not going to agree with what I’m thinking,” he said.

Kemper shared her own concerns about the survey, mainly that if the survey asks people if they’re willing to pay higher taxes to support the pool, and they respond no, the city will take that as people not wanting the pool.

The city will readdress the aquatic center when it gets the results of the survey, Huff said. If the city does move forward with closing down the pool, Huff said he doesn’t see Florence “getting back into the pool business.”

Kemper said many people have shown their support for keeping the pool open on NKYswims.com, where she has done some of her own surveying.