Yuma Mayor Says Kennedy Pool Reopening Hinges on Funding, Public Support

Six years after Kennedy Pool locked its gates, Mayor Doug Nicholls said Thursday the facility's pipes and pumps had deteriorated beyond a quick fix, and any path to reopening runs through city budget commitments and demonstrated community demand.

Nicholls acknowledged publicly what many Yuma residents had long suspected: the closure that began with COVID-19 in 2020 deepened into a far more serious infrastructure problem. "The pool had to be closed because the pipes were failing, the pumps were failing," he said. "There was just too much infrastructure that needed repair, to be able to do it in an effective, cost effective and time effective amount of time."

City officials have maintained that the pandemic was not the sole cause of the extended shutdown. What the 2020 closure exposed, Nicholls said, were systemic failures requiring significant capital investment, not a staffing fix or a seasonal scheduling adjustment.

Residents have pressed the City Council repeatedly in public meetings, expressing frustration and urging officials to restore access to a space many Yuma families once relied on for youth swim programs and low-cost summer recreation. Yuma's triple-digit summers make public pools a heat-mitigation resource as much as a recreational one, and Kennedy Pool's prolonged absence has been a consistent grievance raised from the public comment dais.

Nicholls said the city would proceed carefully before any commitment of public dollars. "We need to make sure we are doing our due diligence to make sure that, that is what the majority of people want to do with the city funds," he said. "Cause at the end of the day, the city's funds are the people's funds."

As of March 26, city leaders offered no reopening timeline. Nicholls identified two conditions that must align before the city moves forward: funding availability and demonstrated public support.

What that process looks like in practice remains an open question. The city has not publicly identified a cost estimate for repairs, a funding source, or a formal structure for gathering community input beyond the ongoing pressure at council meetings.