Morris High School pool to shut down after February

The Morris Community High School said during its meeting Monday night that the pool will be closing permanently in February due to how much it would cost to keep it going.

Mark Walker, the Building and Grounds Director said the pool’s condition over the years led into the decision. He said it needs around $350,000 worth of work.

“It would need a lot of money put into it,” said Superintendent Craig Ortiz. “Our swim team is now co-op with multiple schools, and most of the athletes aren’t Morris students.”

Ortiz said Minooka Community High School is leaving the co-op, and the new Morris Hospital YMCA has become the destination for other swimmers.

“They’re money pits,” Ortiz said. “We just don’t have it, and we can’t keep putting money into it.”

Walker said the pool opened in 1977, and Ortiz said a number of have things have gone into why it’s closing.

“I think it’s the aging, and its cost, and I think it’s a change in who swims,” Ortiz said. “It’s not like it was in the 90s and 2000s when we had people coming over here for open swim. We just weren’t having that anymore.”

Ortiz said open swim was running and the school would get around three people coming in at 5:30 a.m. to swim. He said there were very few people using the pool.