The Metropolitan Recreation Center in Williamsburg will not be reopening anytime soon — leaving Brooklyn with just one operational city-run indoor pool for now.
The facility at 261 Bedford Ave. closed for repairs in January due to a mechanical issue affecting dehumidification and air circulation, according to the city's parks department. A January email from the parks department that a member shared with Gothamist said testing found high amounts of ground-level ozone that would be addressed with new equipment to increase air circulation.
But in a new email to members this week, the parks department said a temporary solution to improve air circulation was unsuccessful, curtailing plans to open soon.
Instead, the facility will remain closed until the mechanical issues are addressed through a larger capital project slated for next year. Officials don’t expect to have a firmer timeline until the procurement phase for the project wraps up next August.
“We were hopeful that we could safely reopen this fall, but unfortunately the actions we were able to take using in-house resources were not sufficient,” the email to members of the Metropolitan center read. “As such, for the health and safety of our patrons, the center must remain closed until we are able to install a full dehumidification system in the natatorium through our planned capital renovation.”
The center houses one of the city’s three indoor pools in Brooklyn — the others are in St. John’s Recreation Center on Prospect Place and at the Brownsville Recreation Center. But the Brownsville pool is closed for construction, according to the city’s website.
Parks department spokesperson Chris Clark encouraged New Yorkers to use other nearby recreation centers, like the McCarren Play Center on Lorimer Street, a little under a mile away.
“While we're disappointed to have to temporarily close the pool, the safety of our patrons is our top priority,” Clark said.
The facility’s closure has been especially disappointing for those who visited it for its pool, like Ridgewood resident Eddy Kijowski, who said there aren’t any other viable options.
“ It was just kind of a big part of my life, I was lap swimming and it was great exercise and then it randomly closed,” he said. ”They recommended Chelsea, which is really, really far from my house. … So then I was biking all the way to Crown Heights to the St. John's Recreation Center, which is quite a hike away from my house and trying that out. But I kind of withered away from working out and ended up having to join a for-profit gym in Ridgewood.”
The email to members assured them those affected by the closure would receive membership extensions.
