Well, it’s finally happened: Voters have approved the construction of an indoor pool at East Hampton High School (authorized cost “not to exceed $45.68 million”). It’s been a long, long time coming. This dreamed-of indoor pool has been high on the district wish list for at least five decades. Back in 1984, as some of the elder editors of this newspaper recall, a bond vote to support the construction of an indoor pool (estimated construction price a lowly $2.4 million) was defeated at the polls after much hot debate here in the letters to the editor about public access and high costs of maintenance.
A chorus of “hurrahs” could be heard ringing out in the night over on Long Lane on Tuesday, and we joined in the celebration. Yes, our community already has an indoor pool at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, but that one is crowded, isn’t suitable for certain competitions, and, despite a recent revamp, is housed in a building with perennial maintenance issues. Yes, Montauk now has an indoor pool at the Montauk Playhouse, but that one is less geographically accessible for those fighting traffic on another end of town. We needed this. The kids needed this.
Proposition 2 in the East Hampton School District’s 2026 bond package — the pool proposition — passed 398 to 211. As reported in The Star, the approved pool facility will have eight lanes, a one-meter diving board suitable for high school competition, raised bleacher seating, restrooms, offices, classrooms, a handicapped-accessible ramp, and separate locker rooms for students and community users. It will be built on the western side of the high school parking lot. The price tag includes changes to the bus traffic patterns, as well as a temporary parking lot to be used while it’s under construction.
During school hours, the district has framed the pool as primarily a place for swim instruction and water-safety instruction, which Superintendent Adam Fine has described as a “life skill.” It is also intended for swimming and diving competitions. The inclusion of diving and bleachers will allow East Hampton to host Suffolk County swimming championships, something the existing RECenter pool cannot accommodate in the same way because it lacks permanent bleachers and diving boards. Notably, the district’s plan also mentions that the pool will be used for vocational training, so students can learn about pool development and maintenance, which seems like a very good idea.
Further, while it hasn’t been mentioned by the school district, we’d like to point out that this new pool will go some way toward addressing issues of equity in swimming instruction and water safety. As articulated by the staff at the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreation Center, who are trying to get their own pool built, swimming skills and water safety “literacy” are at present not shared equally in all quarters of our economically diverse community. That is unacceptable.
It’s true that individual homeowners in the East Hampton School District will be paying extra out of pocket for the construction of the pool, via property taxes. The estimated cost for owners of an average house with an assessed value of $6,000 will be $203.26 per year for 20 years. That’s not peanuts, but taxpayers’ investment in this pool is, by all measures, worth it. This community is wealthy enough to provide an indoor pool for its high school.
It has also been reported that members of the public willing to pay a fee will have access to the pool in the evenings and on some weekends. Now, just as in 1984, these public-use fees are projected to help defray operating costs, as the bond itself does not cover operations, which are expensive. The Star has reported projected annual maintenance/operating costs of roughly $500,000 to $750,000, to cover staffing, maintenance, and insurance; those costs would be incorporated into future annual district budgets once the building is complete.
Those of us champing at the bit to dive into the new pool may be in for another longish wait to learn what that public-use fee might be. We hope and expect that, for taxpayers within the district who are already supporting the pool with higher taxes, that fee will be nominal. We, and the watchdogs in the letters to the editor, shall see.