Cool Pool Becomes Heated Topic

During the past couple of scorching hot days, most Hobokenites must have wished they could have taken a dip in a cool pool. For Fourth Ward Council candidate Tim Occhipinti, this has become a campaign issue. 

"Without any explanation to residents, The City of Hoboken will delay using the municipality's only community pool by two weeks," said Occhipinti in a statement sent out last week, "well after other 'Summer Fun' programs begin on Tuesday, July 6th."

The city's community pool, located at the Boys and Girls Club at 123 Jefferson St. is scheduled to open on July 19, and will be open daily between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. for six weeks, said Director of Health and Human Services Leo Pellegrini. 

The date on which the pool opens was scheduled earlier in the spring and put on the calendar as such. The date (July 19) has not been changed since. 

Occhipinti, in the press release he sent out through a spokesman, questioned why the "only community pool (is) opening nearly a month after school ended?" Occhipinti went on to say that "we all know that every summer we need to get this pool open on-time." 

The pool is available for Hoboken's kids between the ages of five and 12. 

Pellegrini said he chose the middle of the summer, because he figured that it would be hottest from mid-July through August. Last year, Pellegrini said, the pool opened on July 29. Pellegrini also said that the pool is open for six weeks. He said he wouldn't consider opening the pool longer, because he wants to stay within his budget. 

"Can I predict the forecast? No," Pellegrini said in his office in City Hall on Thursday afternoon. "I don't think it was mismanaged at all."

Occhipinti said he called City Hall on the Friday before Independence Day Weekend. Pellegrini, reaching for a time sheet that showed he was in the office late that day, said he received no phone call or e-mail from Occhipinti. 

The cost associated with opening the pool—between $15,000 and $16,000—are being paid with the help of a federal grant the city received in 2008. The money is mostly spent on personnel working the pool, such as a lifeguard and pool aides.

The $223,000 grant came from the Federal Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention. The grant was about to run out, Pellegrini said, and needed to spend the money after asking for an extension.