Community Corner
Interbay Pool Hosts Quiet Summer Reopening
The city pool at 4321 W. Estrella St. will be open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays after being closed for two summers.
You might call it a no-splash grand reopening.
Interbay Pool , near the Culbreath Heights neighborhood, reopened for summer swimming at 10 this morning, but by 10:30 , the four lifeguards on duty still awaited their first customer.
“I hope at least one kid shows up,” said Mallory Gaeth, center coordinator for Interbay and Bobby Hicks pools, as she eyed the overcast sky.
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Photojournalists with WTVT’s Fox 13 and Bay News 9 set up cameras on the lonely pool deck and shot footage of still, blue water.
By noon, two adults had come and gone, and four children were enjoying the water, Gaeth said.
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“That’s better than none,” she said.
In 2009 and 2010, the pool was closed after Memorial Day weekend, when Bobby Hicks Pool, 4120 Mango Ave., opens, to save money, said Linda Carlo, spokeswoman for the city Parks and Recreation Department. Interbay, which is heated to 82 degrees, reopened in November when Bobby Hicks closed.
“Bobby Hicks is a bigger pool – the only 50-meter pool in the city,” Carlo said, so it could accommodate more summertime patrons.
In July 2008, Interbay averaged 84 patrons a day, Carlo said.
In meetings with Mayor Bob Buckhorn and parks department representatives, people living closer to Interbay, 4321 W. Estrella St., had asked that the pool be reopened in the summer, Gaeth said. Bobby Hicks Pool is about three miles away.
Interbay initially closed in 2009 following a federal mandate that required installation of new drain covers to protect swimmers. The drain covers caused problems with the water filtration system, but those have been corrected, Carlo said.
The pool is scheduled to remain open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays through Aug. 19.
“We’ve been asked to keep track of attendance, to see whether it warrants being open,” Gaeth said.
Tampa residents pay $2 to $4, depending on age, for single swim sessions, or they can buy a seasonal pass, which costs $25 for individuals, $75 for families. Seasonal passes also require purchase of a parks and recreation department pass, which is $15 a year for individuals; $50 a year for families.
For a complete list of Tampa public pool locations and hours of operation, visit the parks department's Swim Programs Web site.
