Sprain Ridge pool to reopen in 2017... maybe

At the beginning of his State of the County address last week, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino made a mildly funny joke about how fast his six years in office have gone.

"I'm reminded of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, where the bible tells us God created heaven and earth; the light, the land, the oceans and all living creatures in justsix days," he said.

"If given six years," he continued, "you wonder what God could do with Westchester County. … Would there still be potholes?"

Here's another pointed question for the Man Upstairs: If given all that time, would the county-owned Sprain Ridge Pool still be closed for repairs?

The once popular pool complex on the border of Yonkers and Greenburgh has, in fact, been closed for four years, which is almost stupefying. This summer will mark the fifth year. But don't blame this delay on God.

Mere mortals could've fixed the pool long ago.

The Sprain pool (it actually consists of three separate pools) has been at the center of a political controversy ever since it was closed to swimmers in 2011 because of a chronic leak. That was early into Astorino's first term in office.

He has not made it a priority to repair the pool. Fixing it would cost millions of dollars.

Indeed, the pool was effectively shelved as a recreational asset — and over time, as weeds popped through ever-widening cracks in the cement, it became a highly visible example of the county executive's determined policy to hold the line on county property tax increases.

Last year, the Astorino administration finally proposed a scaled-down repair job, which never came to a vote because it was deemed insufficient. MaryJayne Shimsky, a Democratic legislator from Hasting-on-Hudson who chairs the infrastructure committee on the county Board of Legislators, called it the "$5 million putty-and-paint bond."

But here's the latest surprising twist: Astorino has sent a new resolution down to the legislators that calls for $8.8 million of new bonding for the pool. Whether or not that will be sufficient to cover the cost of the most basic renovations, is not yet known.

At any rate, Democrats and Republicans alike are expected to support this bond, so it should breeze through the various committees and get passed.

Shimsky said that the process of design and construction will take "a bare minimum of two years."

That means that the pool could reopen for the start of the 2017 summer season, which may explain Astorino's sudden desire to get this done. He's up for re-election that year. But even if he chooses not to run, he probably wouldn't want to be remembered as a county executive who let things fall apart.

Some taxpayers who live in other sections of the county and don't use the Sprain pool might strongly believe that the pool isn't worth fixing. Legislator Peter Harckham, D-Bedford, who heads the committee on labor, parks, planning and housing, has an answer for that.

He points to the two bond acts totaling $8 million that were passed more than a year ago in order to make repairs at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, which is in the northern reaches of the county and falls within his district. Down county residents theoretically could've protested, he said.

"So we try to take the approach that we're one Westchester," Harckham said. "We look out for each other."

Included in the package of material accompanying the new bond proposal was a supporting statement that emphasized the project's importance "to meeting the needs of Westchester residents.

"Swimming has always ranked as a high preference for Westchester County residents and continues to be a desired activity."

Shimsky, for one, found irony in that.

"Read this and you have to laugh," she said. "I mean if they knew all of this in 2011 why did they close the pool? Why didn't they fix it then?"

Harckham said that Astorino came into office with a "mindset" to reduce the cost of county government, which, in his view, was understandable. However, he added that after six years the county's infrastructure was allowed to languish—a condition exacerbated by cuts to the Department of Public Works.

Legislator Catherine Parker, D-Rye, said Astorino boxed himself into a "smoke and mirrors" game of appearing to reduce taxes either by borrowing or by delaying repairs to county-owned structures.

Said Harckham, "You know, the decay is obvious. It's time we got it done."

You hear that, God?

Email: preisman@lohud.com Twitter: @philreisman