Shuttered Hales Corner Pool Needs $600,000 in Repairs

Hales Corners Park. Photo taken June 21, 2025 by Jake Braund.

If the Hales Corners Park Pool is ever going to reopen, it will first need about $600,000 in repairs, according to Milwaukee County Parks.

The county has not opened the pool to the public since 2019. It is one of several outdoor pools that have not reopened since the COVID-19 pandemic led Parks to close aquatics facilities in 2020.

Sup. Patti Logsdon, whose district includes the park, has advocated for reopening the pool in recent years. In June, she worked with her colleagues on the county board to pass a resolution asking Parks to refill the pool with water, testing the liner and the filtration systems. Parks filled the pool in August.

It found at least a dozen problems that need repairing before the pool is reopened, including a new filtration center, pool liner, drains, sewer lines, perimeter fencing, flooring, decking around the pool and electrical systems.

“These findings reflect the age and condition of the facility, which originally opened to the public in 1968,” Peter Bratt, director of operations and skilled trades, wrote in a Nov. 14 report to the Milwaukee County Board. “Of the three other pools constructed by Milwaukee County Parks during this period, two (Lincoln and Dineen) have since been replaced with new facilities, and the third (Washington Park) has been identified for full replacement by Parks through the aquatic facility plan.”

The aquatic facility plan, which Parks finalized in August, identified Hales Corners Park Pool for permanent closure and replacement with a new facility centrally located in southern Milwaukee County. The overarching plan laid out for the aquatics system involves the number of aquatics facilities, including eliminating all wading pools by 2035, and eventually consolidating pool offerings into new larger, regional aquatics facilities.

The plan did suggest Hales Corners Park Pool could be run by a private-public partnership similar to TOSA Pool in Hoyt Park. The new report by Parks repeats this recommendation, which would reduce county support for the pool.

The Parks aquatics system has 45 pools, water parks, wading pools and splash pads. The aging system costs nearly $3 million a year to operate. The newest pool, Schulz Aquatic Center, was built 15 years ago. Other pools are 50 years old.

Parks has a massive backlog of infrastructure and maintenance needs, estimated at approximately $1 billion over the next five years. The department will also likely have less revenue to operate the pools in the coming years. Budget projections by the Office of the Comptroller show the county headed for growing operating budget deficits.

Hales Corners is one of five pools Parks has identified for decommissioning including those in Grobschmidt Park, Wilson Park, Washington Park and Jackson Park. Parks is planning a replacement aquatic facility for the Washington Park pool, which could include a “destination splash pad,” which the department has described as “akin to a mini water park.”

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