With summer temperatures rising higher and higher the city opened all of its pools to the public last week.
? Fort Totten Park Pool, located at 338 Story Avenue, has one large pool with a diving board for adults and a separate smaller pool for children. The pools are on a hilltop and surrounded by grass. Fort Totten is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with an hour break from 3 to 4 p.m. for cleaning; the park is also closed on Wednesdays.
? Castlewood Playground Pool, located at the corner of Little Neck Parkway and 72nd Avenue has much to offer children, with a 40 foot long pool to swim in and a park to play in and dry off. Children aren’t confined to the pool area; there is a full park complete with slides, swings and monkey bars for children to play on. Parents are able to watch their children from a close distance because of the available benches throughout the park.
“I feel like my kids are safe here,” said Wanda Brown, a Glen Oaks resident who frequently goes to Castlewood. “I can sit in this one spot and see them get in and out of the pool. Plus there’s a life guard by the pool, a police officer in the parking lot and a crossing guard right outside of the gates [to the park] so I can even get a little bit of reading done while my kids enjoy the park.”
Safety is an important issue when it comes to taking children to pools. Liberty Pool at Detective Keith L. Williams Park, at 173rd Street and 106th Avenue, has a 1 foot wading pool that is made for small children and a 60 foot long pool for older children. The pool also has a deck that can hold approximately 600 people, making it a perfect family outing.
Astoria Park Pool is the largest pool in Queens at 330 feet long. The pool is located at the intersection of 19th Street and 23rd Drive and is convenient for children and adults. There is a main pool deck, where people using the pool can also lay in the sun and there are locker rooms where people can leave their belongings. There are also two upper level decks that make it possible for people to relax a safe distance away from splashed water.
“The pools have been open for less than a week and my family already lives here,” joked Kelsey Weibolt, a Long Island City resident. “My sons will not do anything in this heat besides come to the pool.”
Daniel Morales, an Astoria Park Pool patron says he loves spending time with his wife at the pool and now that they are open to the public he can foresee the two of them spending the majority of their free time there.
All the above pools are open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a one hour closing time for cleaning from 3 to 4 p.m. For any further information on your local pool visit https://www.nycgovparks.org
