A plan to end night swimming at Barton Springs is over before it ever began

The city’s parks department has backed away from a plan to close Barton Springs Pool an hour earlier this summer. The change would have eliminated the free daily night swims — full moon or not.

“While the Parks and Recreation Department was considering a minor reduction in pool hours to achieve cost savings, the City Manager had not approved or decided if the cost savings achieved by reducing pool hours would justify the impact to our residents’ experience,” explained City of Austin Communication Director Jessica King late Tuesday evening. “Since the summer season is upon us and we prefer to provide residents with advanced notice on such changes, the City will not be implementing changes to pool hours at this time. However, as we prepare for next year’s budget, we must also prepare for tougher conversations across all department services.”

Over Memorial Day weekend, Barton Springs swimmers noticed a new sign that had quietly been posted by the City bearing some bad news for free night swimmers: Beginning June 1, the pool would close completely at 9pm.

Barton is open every day from 5am-10pm except for Thursdays, when it closes for cleaning at 9am, but reopens at 7pm. Every day, before 8am and after 9am the pool is free and unguarded, with a swim-at-your-own-risk policy. Under the newly proposed hours, the pool would have closed an hour earlier at 9pm, ending free night swim, but retaining free morning swim till 8am. Thursday morning is swim-at-your-own-risk until 9am, but will not reopen for the rest of the day.

The resulting uproar quickly reached City Council offices. Council Member Ryan Alter, whose District 5 borders the pool, had already sprung into action as of Tuesday evening.

“I share the concerns I’ve heard from many constituents today, and I’ve asked the manager to work with PARD to reinstate free night swim hours at Barton Springs,” he told the Austin Monitor.

A few hours later, the parks department officially confirmed that night swim would continue.

King explained that the department anticipated a deficit in this year’s operating budget and, in order to avoid a deficit, City Manager T.C. Broadnax had directed all city departments to identify 1.5 percent in cost-saving measures.

Though perhaps not as well known as the swath of Austinites who swim at Barton religiously before dawn, judging by the reaction on social media, there are quite a few dedicated night swimmers who were less than happy about the change. They took to Reddit and Facebook to lament the loss of tradition and respite from the daytime heat.

A Tribeza article from June last year heard from regular nighttime Barton-goers that the later hours are more calm and quiet compared to the bustling daytime scene, and that it can be a sober social alternative to bar hopping. Especially during the endless summer, that extra hour post-sunset is the only time of day that isn’t prohibitively scorching for more sensitive populations – and the parking is generally easier too.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license. This story has been updated to reflect the fact that the pool is in District 8, not 5.

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Posted In: Parks, District 5