MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — The pool at Lambert Park in Martinsburg has seen better days. Martinsburg/Berkeley County Parks and Recreation Executive Director Bob Williams says the Woodbury Avenue pool has been out of commission this season due to leaks that they believe are in the joints of pipes around the pool – not easy to access, and not an easy fix.
Last month, the city of Martinsburg issued a joint statement with the MBC Parks and Rec addressing the problems at Lambert Park and suggesting one fix may be to replace the aging pool with an outdoor splash pad.
Since then, they’ve been considering other ideas, according to Martinsburg City Manager Mark Baldwin:
“At the last council meeting, the discussion turned to ‘While we’re looking, let’s look at all the options,'” Baldwin said.
“So we’ve expanded the scope for council to approve tonight to look at an outdoor splash pad, but removing the indoor splash pad because we added an indoor pool element to it.”
“We’re not talking ‘aquatic center,'” he says. Rather, he says, one of the ideas would be a combination of an indoor/outdoor pool and a splash pad. Baldwin cautioned the ideas are only concepts right now and that to see any of it come to fruition would take cooperation from stakeholders.
The ideas are on the agenda for Thursday night’s meeting of the Martinsburg City Council.
In July, the statement from the City of Martinsburg and Parks and Rec laid out the problem:
” Lambert Pool has been a part of Martinsburg’s history for over 40 years, providing children and community members an opportunity to stay active and cool during the summer months. In recent years, the pool has required many costly repairs to remain open and it is at the end of its useful life. During this opening season, it was determined that the pool was unable to remain operational, even with extensive work with pool professionals and the camera scoping of all the water lines. The current pool sits atop a high-water table that presented operational issues for years and MBCPR has been advised to explore alternate solutions.”
Mark Baldwin spoke on Panhandle Live, heard weekday mornings on WEPM/WCST, the Panhandle News Network.
You can hear his full comments