After more than a half century of use, the pool at Carnes Park in its current incarnation may have seen its last days, according to city officials.
On the morning of June 1, Camden Public Works Director Kevin Franklin said in a Facebook post, "we did everything physically possible to get Carnes Park Pool up and running."
Franklin said later that the 1950s-era pool's water filtering system isn't working correctly.
"This pool has around ten jets; what's supposed to happen is that the pool is supposed to regenerate itself. Every eight hours, the water is supposed to go through a cycle. It should go through the tanks, be filtered and pumped back in every eight hours," he explained. "Well, the jets don't work on the side of the pool so the water can't be put back in. Whereas it should cycle every eight hours, it takes our pool around 32-48 hours to recycle, so, if we have a day where there's decent (number of) people at the pool, we have to close it for two or three days. The jets just don't work at all."
The Carnes Park pool had its official opening in the summer of 1954 and the last few years have been plagued by pump issues, often leaving the pool closed for days to weeks.
Franklin said attempts to contact pool contractors have been less than fruitful, as many companies in Little Rock don't want to make the drive to Camden to fix the pool.
"I guess because they have so much work to do where they are, they just don't have any interest in driving to Camden," he added. "The people who did Crossett's pool came from Kansas City."
Franklin said that one option would be to rebuild the pool on a smaller scale as is being considered in El Dorado, which recently razed its only public pool with intentions to build a new water feature. Discussions are ongoing in El Dorado about what will replace the Mattocks Park pool.
"I'm going to see if I can get some type of contractors to come give us a quote, or some type of engineer to come give us something to build in the same location, because you know we're kind of married to the splash pad," Franklin said.
Franklin noted the Splash Pad remains operational and can be enjoyed throughout the summer.
City officials also said a smaller pool might be needed.
"We have exhausted all means to have the pool up and running for 2022. I looked forward -- and still do -- to the Mayor's Pool Party 2023. Regretfully, the age of the pool shows and we are having a hard time getting what we need to continue to run it efficiently. With inflation and costs of supplies, the repair would only be a portion of solution," Camden Mayor Julian Lott said in an email. "So, we have decided to propose shrinking the pool to a more manageable size."
"We are excited about the Splash Pad and ask that we continue to supervise our children and be mindful of adults that the switch costs $1,100 each time someone breaks it," Lott continued.
Camden Alderman L.E. Lindsey echoed the mayor and public works directors' statements.
"Finding someone to work on it has been a problem. There's nothing we can do for now, apparently. We're going to see if we can come up with some decent plans to get it fixed for the future. That could be tough; we could be out next year too, depending on when it takes to come up with a plan, what it costs to fix it and then bidding it out and some contractors- they may be working on it come this time next summer," he said.
Lindsey said he talked to Franklin last Friday about the pool and heard, "They sent some pumps off to get them fixed and one of them worked and one didn't.
"It's just kind of a lost cause," he said.
A 1954 issue of the Camden News states, "Construction on the new City Swimming Pool at Carnes Park is progressing exceptionally well despite bad weather, according to pool officials. Present plans are for the pool to be completed by the end of June."
The article goes on to describe the pool as 185 by 75 foot, ranging in depth from 5 to 11 feet, able to accommodate up to 500 swimmers and 666,486 gallons of water
"The pool will be an Olympic 50 meter AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) swimming pool and will meet the requirements of the State Board of Health. A number of health and safety precautions will be taken. Water in the pool will be completely changed every 8 hours and will be constantly flowing out, carried by pipes through filters, purifying it, and back again into the pool. These filters will treat the water with the specified amount of chlorine for health purposes. Two lifeguards will be on duty at all times when the pool is open and it will be well lighted for night swimming," the article continues.
"Fresh water will be continuously flowing into this pool. Depth of the wading pool is two feet to two feet six inches. The wading pool will not be enclosed in the steel fence which encloses the main pool. The present wading pool at the park will be done away with," the article concludes.