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Berwyn advisory committee launches review of rec-center pool, seeks engineering assessment and community input
Summary
A newly seated Berwyn advisory committee met March 19 to begin scoping options for the city’s sole public pool: members agreed to gather facility-condition data, pursue a professional structural assessment, and plan multilingual community outreach before recommending next steps to city council.
Ald. Micah Caldwell, first-ward alderman and chair of Berwyn’s Pool Feasibility and Design Exploration Ad Hoc Committee, opened the group’s March 19 meeting and framed its task as an advisory review to evaluate options for the city’s recreation-center pool, including design concepts, partnership opportunities and funding approaches.
The nine-member committee — composed of city aldermen, a park-district commissioner, recreation staff and community members — agreed that the first priorities are collecting baseline facility information and securing a professional engineering or structural assessment to determine whether the existing pool is salvageable or should be replaced. "This is the start of a lot of work to ... figure out what direction we're going in with this pool," Caldwell said.
Committee members described why the issue matters locally. Longtime resident Inessa Baya said she swims multiple times per week and urged the group to maximize the pool’s utility for residents. "I'm an avid user of the pool," Baya said. Juan, a returning resident who worked at the pool for years, offered operational experience and volunteered to help identify vendors who perform feasibility and structural analyses.
Members repeatedly emphasized fiscal realism. Several participants said there is no committee budget yet for consultants but that the group can draft a scope and take a funding request to city council. Mike, who said he has experience underwriting municipal bonds, offered to help frame potential financing questions. Committee members flagged the need to align any timeline with ballot deadlines if voters will ultimately be asked to approve construction funding.
The committee also began planning public engagement. Members recommended multiple outreach channels — in-person listening sessions, online surveys, printed materials and multilingual outreach (Spanish was specifically noted) — and said the group should share interim findings back to the public to build trust.
Operational items were also settled: members tentatively agreed to meet monthly in the near term, to form subcommittees focused on finance, facility design, programming and public engagement, and to hold an on-site visit to the Berwyn Recreation Center. The group set its next meeting for Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at 6 p.m. at the Berwyn Recreation Center, 6501 31st Street, to review background information and consider a consultant-scope proposal.
Votes at a glance: the committee approved the minutes from its March 5 meeting (motion by Ald. Sarah Brookman, seconded by Leisia; outcome: approved); a voice vote excused several absent members; and the meeting adjourned by voice vote.
What happens next: committee members will request existing facility and operational records from rec-center staff, seek cost estimates from structural/feasibility vendors and prepare a potential funding request for city-council consideration. The committee will organize community listening sessions after early technical work clarifies feasible options.
