The Kennedy Aquatic Center, 6050 Wells Road, will not open to the South County public this summer, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page stated at a media briefing on Feb. 11, in which various county service reductions were announced.

“The Kennedy pool is 50 years old and has a water main break that has been extraordinarily expensive to repair and maintain. The parts for the pool that (are) needed are no longer available. It would cost more than $100,000 to repair the water main and to maintain this pool,” Page said. He continued that another reason the Kennedy Aquatic Center — along with St. Vincent’s Pool in North County — were chosen for closure this summer out of all the county pools as they have “a much lower community participation” in comparison to other sites.

As of now, the rest of the Kennedy Recreation Complex will remain open with none of its hours changed.

Cuts to services across the county are due to the budget that the County Council passed in December; it cut approximately $48 million from Page’s proposed budget.

“Let’s be clear. These are not cuts that my office wanted to make. The budget that I sent to the county council would have allowed us to avoid all of these service reductions, services that residents enjoy,” Page said.

Additional cuts impacting the South County area include the newly reduced in-person hours at the South County Government Center, 4554 Lemay Ferry Road. The office will now close at 3:30 p.m. as opposed to 4:30 p.m., though the opening time of 8 a.m. will remain.

Read more about the remaining reductions to the county’s services in the Feb. 19 print edition of The Call.