Armed with jackhammers, city officials begin $3.5M pool replacement

The plan to demolish Brookhaven’s Briarwood Park pool has begun, with crews planning to build a new pool and pool house by next summer.

Brookhaven Mayor John Ernst and councilmembers John Park and Bates Mattison held jackhammers Tuesday to ceremoniously break ground on the $3.5 million project.

Waterworks Aqua Design is set to build a 4,000-square-foot pool house with restrooms, locker rooms, concessions and a ticket office, after the current one is demolished, the city said in a statement. The new pool will be “zero-entry” (also known as beach-style entry) and will feature spray features and a six-lane swim competition section. Briarwood Park will also get a new pavilion, bleachers, and shade umbrellas.

This rendering shows what the pool could look like by next summer.

The original plans only called for a renovation of the pool, the city said. But officials discovered it would be “more cost-effective to build a new pool and pool house instead of updating the existing facility to meet current health codes and standards,” the statement said.

Work is scheduled to begin immediately, with the new pool scheduled to open by Memorial Day weekend in 2020.

“There’s no question we are getting things done in Brookhaven,” Ernst said in a statement.