‘Awesome day’: KCK officials announce Parkwood Pool will open Memorial Day weekend
Last year, Tyrone Garner was among about 100 Kansas City, Kansas residents who stood outside the gates of Parkwood Pool, participating with them in protest over the pool being closed.
Garner, now the Mayor and CEO of the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas/Wyandotte County, lived in the Parkwood neighborhood and would swim at the pool during summers while he was a student at Wyandotte High School. He understood the frustration from residents as the Unified Government made the decision to close the pool for a second straight year amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The pool is the only public swimming pool in Kansas City, Kansas. Community members and residents were outraged.
“It really hit home for me, just from my upbringing, the importance of having this pool and the value it brought, not just for the people that live in the Northeast, but the entire Kansas City, Kansas community,” Garner said.
On Tuesday afternoon — almost one year following the protests and the pool’s closure — Garner stood on the sidewalk surrounding the pool, along with several Unified Government staff and other community members, a banner at his back with an announcement:
Parkwood Pool will open on May 28.
“This is an awesome day for Wyandotte County,” Garner said. “We were going to do everything that we could to make sure that we had a pool functional and operation and open for business here in Kansas City, Kansas.”
The pool’s hours, however, will be shorter due to a shortage of lifeguards — a problem that has affected several Kansas City area pools. Parkwood will be open from noon-6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 2-6 p.m. on Sunday. It will be closed Monday.
The Unified Government tried several avenues in order to help bring in as many lifeguards as possible. It raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour and people don’t have to be residents of Kansas City, Kansas to apply. It has also signed a one-year contract with Midwest Pool Management who will help provide the additional lifeguards. There will be seven lifeguards at a time staffing the swimming pool during operating hours.
Another problem arose last year after a 13-year-old boy nearly drowned in the pool in June after a group of young people jumped the fence that surrounds the pool. The boy, identified as Emmanuel Solomon, according to a GoFundMe fundraiser, later died at a hospital despite being rescued by Kansas City, Kansas Firefighters.
“What happened last year at Parkwood is not lost on any single one of us here,” said Angel Obert, the director for the Unified Government Parks and Recreation department. “It was a tragic accident that should have never happened.”
Obert announced that the Unified Government, along with the YMCA of Greater Kansas City and Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools developed a “Learn to Swim” program, which is funded with a grant from Warner Media. The program will provide free swimming lessons to students of Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools.
“What we’ve been hearing for the last five plus years is our community needs these resources,” Obert said. “They need to have these opportunities so that the youth have access to pools, to swimming programs.”
Obert also said that the pool will have staffed security by the time the pool opens during Memorial Day weekend.
Commissioner Gayle Townsend, District 1, said she wants the community to be responsible and follow the rules.
“You know what’s right, you know what’s wrong,” Townsend said. “Let the community take responsibility for our own actions to prevent further tragedies.”
