TAMPA, Fla. — Neighbors in Tampa are continuing to call for the reopening of a beloved community pool that has been closed for over a year.
The Sulphur Springs pool brings back memories of summer fun and a community coming together.
“It was like home to us. We went all the time,” said Meagan Berkstresser.
WATCH: Tampa neighbors continue to call for fixes to reopen Sulphur Springs pool
Berkstresser and her family were regulars.
But today, it's just an empty hole in the ground with the gates closed and locked.
“It’s just really sad. My daughter looks over and sees it in disarray and is like oh I miss the pool, and I’m like I know, baby, I miss the pool too,” she said. “We’re really hopeful and optimistic that we can get it back up and running because it is a very important issue to a lot of people in both Seminole Heights and Sulphur Springs.”
It's a story ABC Action News first shared last year.
The pool closed for the season in November 2023. Prep work for opening the next season discovered safety issues.
Neighbors reached out to ABC Action News again, still frustrated over the closure.
Berkstresser started a petition to bring attention to the issue. It's garnered about 1,300 signatures.
“I wanted to do something to bring awareness to it and just kind of let the city know this is an important resource, and we don't want to let it fall to the wayside,” said Berkstresser.
Neighbor Susan Elbare started the Save the Sulphur Springs Pool committee.
“As far as we know at this point, it is repairable,” said Elbare. “I'm sure they're going to find other issues when they do it, but it's our understanding that they do want it repaired."
ABC Action News took neighbors' questions to the City of Tampa.
Leaders stressed that while they understand the pool's significance to the community, safety is the priority. Officials explained that given the severity of its structural issues, the pool remains closed indefinitely.
"We could see the degradation of the pool,” said Tampa Parks and Recreation Director Tony Mulkey. “We saw cracking in the pool deck. We saw our gutter systems failing."
The city said engineers continue to evaluate possible repairs or alternative options.
"We have some very promising options moving forward, but we have to explore how we sequence those and to make sure that they're viable because we could fix all the systems, but whatever was causing the damage to begin with we want to make sure we at least fix that or at least mitigate the impacts,” said Mulkey.
In the meantime, city leaders encourage people to explore nearby city pools this summer, which they said offer similar amenities and programming.
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