North Kohala residents can finally take a cool dip in their community pool after being closed nearly two years for repairs.
On Saturday, a blessing took place at Kohala Pool at Kamehameha Park in Kapaau after volunteers spent the past 21 months repairing the aging county aquatic center.
Mayor Mitch Roth joined Kohala resident Kahu Kealoha Sugiyama and Friends of Kohala Pool’s Jeff Coakley in a blessing and re-opening that has been highly anticipated by the North Kohala community.
Skyy Matthey who was a regular at the pool before its closure took the first ceremonial dive into the blue, clean water.
“It’s amazing and wonderful to have a blessed pool,” she said. “It makes it safer for us.”
Coakley’s son Spencer is the pool’s senior lifeguard and swim coach. He said getting to Saturday’s blessing was a journey.
“So much thanks to our friends and community and the county for allowing us to fix the pool,” he said. “I want to make this place fun and have swim programs like volleyball, water polo, water hockey along with swim lessons. A lot of kids suffered under COVID when we were closed, so I want them to have fun. My priority is the kids.”
Roth called Saturday “an amazing day.”
“It’s a community that took a leading role, showing that public/private partnerships work to get things done,” he said. “This community deserves the best.”
Friends of Kohala Pool raised $37,920.86 to repair the pool, which sees an average of 100 swimmers on a weekday and 150 on the weekends. New filters and a new water pump were installed and general maintenance was performed, all by community volunteers.
“The county gave us their full support, never micromanaging us or looking over our shoulders. They allowed us to be self reliant,” said Coakley.
“The pool was initially closed on January 12, 2022, due to numerous systems failures in the pump room. We are immensely grateful for the determination, resilience, and unity shown by the Friends of Kohala Pool and the local community during this challenging period,” said Maurice Messina, Director of Hawaii County Parks and Recreation. “Next we are going into the design process to fix the rest of the pool, including the decks, which will be about a $5 million project.”
The pool was built in 1973 and has been closed before for repairs. Coakley said in 2015 new federal guidelines were established for public pool filters which were replaced along with surrounding bubbling plaster.
“Part of the design plan is to have a brand new everything,” said Coakley. “There is a national movement to eliminate diving boards. We used to have three, now we only have one because of liability, but I want to make sure diving boards are built into the new design.”
Although there is no timeline for those renovations, and money has not been secured to fund them, both Messina and Coakley were optimistic it will get done.
“This is an amazing community,” said Coakley. “Spencer grew up at this pool and remembers how much fun he had here. We want to keep that going for the next generation of keiki.”
