FOLKS HOT ABOUT LONG POOL CLOSURE.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

PANORAMA CITY - For the sixth straight year, the Sepulveda Pool will remain closed this summer - despite assurances from city officials last year that it would be ready to open by the fall of 1999.

The situation has frustrated local residents, who say they can't believe it has remained closed this long and don't accept the excuses offered by city officials.

``I could build one on the moon for less time and money than what they're doing,'' said an exasperated Harry Coleman, president of the North Hills Community Coordinating Council.

``Something needs to be done now, before the summer begins,'' said 17- year-old Richard Mendosa, as he sat on his bike in the shade of the park near the pool. ``It's too hot already. I'm starting to melt.''

City officials, however, urge patience and say the delay will ultimately result in a much better facility. They want to transform the pool into an elaborate ``family aquatic center,'' essentially a miniwater park, complete with a giant water slide, fountains, low-pressure water cannons and other elements designed to make it more fun for kids.

``This thing has been a construction nightmare,'' city Parks Commission President Steve Soboroff acknowledged. ``This is the last one to finish. There was a lot more damage and a lot more to be done there than anyone realized, but that doesn't help anyone who isn't there swimming.''

Soboroff said the aged facility had a number of hidden structural problems that project planners had not anticipated.

``As anyone who has a home knows, once you start remodeling, you find unexpected things.''

Until it's complete, would-be swimmers will have to hike to other pools across the city. Soboroff said those sites will be open a few weeks into the school year as a means of compensating for the Sepulveda pool delays. And he says once the new facility ``absolutely'' opens next summer, it will have been worth the wait.

The change would put the San Fernando Valley in the forefront of a trend that is going to be adopted across the city in coming years, said John Vowels, principal recreation supervisor for the aquatics division of the Recreation & Parks Department.

``We're just basically following the marketplace,'' Vowels said. ``The whole concept of a family aquatic center is like a Raging Waters or Hurricane Harbor, but on a smaller scale. It's trying to make places a little more fun vs. more sterile.''

The pool, which was built in 1959, was closed after the 1994 season to repair cracks in the bottom. But various legal, political and bureaucratic delays kept pushing back the project, and officials kept promising it would open the following year.

Last summer, city officials said the work should be done by September 1999 and the pool could open for some ``Indian summer'' swimming.

But that didn't happen.

When county Health Department officials reviewed the plans last year, they ordered the city to upgrade the water filtration and circulation system to meet current health codes, as well as replace pipes that were made in part with asbestos, according to Richard Chang, project manager for the Recreation and Parks Department's planning and construction division.

The cost estimates for that additional work alone were $225,000, which would have been in addition to the project's original cost of $212,000. So now the department is waiting for a legal opinion to find out whether it needs to rebid the contract or just modify the original one, Chang said. It is also waiting to see if it needs to reshape the pool for the aquatic center, which would add an additional $30,000.

``Our hand was really forced with the (county) Health Department's requirement that we upgrade the return lines to the pool,'' Vowels said. ``We said we don't want to put that much money in only to have it torn out down the road.''

So now once again, officials are saying, wait until next year.

``If everything goes right, I'm hoping this thing will be ready by the end of the year,'' Vowels said. Because it's a seasonal pool, it would not open at that time, but should be ready by next June, he said.

Even if the new facility will be better than before, neighborhood residents say they're not interested in waiting. They would rather see the pool, minus the aquatic center, open immediately, and then have the additional work done at some point in the future.

``They give us a lot of excuses and no action,'' said Arline DeSanctis, chief field deputy for Councilman Joel Wachs, whose district includes the pool. ``It's very frustrating.''

``The children need the pool up there open,'' she added. ``There's not a lot for them to do. It's an area where there's a lot of drug dealing, a lot of criminal activity, and we need to keep them off the streets.''

Vowels said part of the reason for creating the family aquatic center is to better serve the community and get more of those kids into the pool and off the streets.

Before the Sepulveda Pool closed, its attendance was relatively low compared with other city pools, Vowels said. Just under 9,000 people attended in the summer of 1994 before it closed, ranking Sepulveda 27th in attendance out of 43 pools citywide.

By comparison, the Sun Valley Pool had similar attendance figures in the 8,000 to 9,000 range before it was remodeled in 1996, Vowels said. But after it reopened with a new water slide, attendance shot up above 19,000 by 1998 and by more than 21,000 last year with the city's new free-swim policy for kids under 17.

``What we're hoping with Sepulveda, when we get it all squared away with the slides and play features, is that this pool that was minimally used will become a destination for the young people in the community,'' Vowels said.