By Forum Staff
City Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Ozone Park) recently penned a letter to the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy requesting that it include an Olympic-sized swimming pool in their plans to activate Floyd Bennett Field and transform the area into “a hub for recreation, education, workforce development, community and coastal resilience.”
Ariola has joined community leaders calling for a pool to be placed at the location in order to improve swim safety and provide new, year-round opportunities for local residents.
“A pool at Floyd Bennett Field would bring tremendous benefits to the people of Rockaway and the surrounding communities,” the councilwoman said. “It is located just minutes away from the peninsula by car and is easily accessible by public transportation. It would also provide not just recreational opportunities, but educational ones as well. With this pool, we would be able to provide quality swim-safety education to residents, and also provide a lifeguard training facility that does not require Rockaway residents to travel long distances to be certified. Additionally, this pool would be able to serve as the home pool for our local schools, further cultivating the aquatic culture in the area.”
Dan Mundy, Jr., president of the Broad Channel Civic Association, added, “Our sports program is fighting for pool time with less and less pools available due to issues at city high school pools. This has threatened the local swim program. It would be wonderful to see such a facility built as an aquatic center for training and learning for all of the children in nearby communities. Such a facility would allow for children to learn basic fundamentals of water, safety, and given the high fatality rate along the Rockaway shoreline is absolutely necessary. In addition the training time would be fantastic for all of the local teams and the aquatic center facility at Eisenhower Park would be a great model to be considered.”
“The Rockaway Beach Civic Association has long advocated for a year-round, public pool facility on or in proximity to the Rockaway peninsula,” the Rockaway Beach Civic Association Executive Board said. “A public pool would serve the surrounding and broader community, supporting vital in-water swim education, lifeguard and other first responder training and certification, a range of recreational and water fitness opportunities, and at Olympic-size specifications, a prime location for youth and adult swim competitions, adaptive athletic events and more.”
“This would be a huge win for families across the peninsula,” said Ed Lynch, executive vice president of the Belle Harbor Property Owners Association. “So many of our kids grow up by the water, but they don’t always have access to proper swim instruction or safe places to practice. An Olympic pool at Floyd Bennett Field could change that. It’s close by, easy to get to, and it would benefit everyone from student athletes to everyday beachgoers. It could also provide a remedy for our lifeguard issues as well, by providing a nearby facility for our young people to train at and get certified. I’m glad Councilwoman Ariola is pushing for this.”
