Why are WeHo Park’s new pool and playground still not open?

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WeHo’s Director of Facilities and Recreation Steve Campbell answered questions Monday night about why the opening of the playground and pool at West Hollywood Park continues to be delayed.

He said the building has received its Temporary Certificate of Occupancy, which allows staff to to set up offices, lifeguards to be trained and other preliminary steps to proceed. An official certificate is expected later this week or early next week.

“We will kind of start our phased opening, with access to limited access to the pools and limited access to the gymnasium,towards the end of the month or beginning of June,” he said.

He described leaks in the swimming pools as “very common in an installation of this type, where it’s a liner-based suspended pool. All of the leaks have been associated with penetrations, either for pipes or stair rails or those types of things. It’s not structural in nature.”

“Those have been uh chased down and repaired,” he assured City Council.

And the deficient installations of the brand-new playground equipment are being addressed, he said.

“We’ve brought in a separate contractor under the guidance of the manufacturer to make all of those corrections and get everything kind of dialed into the way that it needs to be so that it’s safe and usable for everyone for many years,” he said.

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Campbell turned down WEHOville’s request for an interview to discuss these subjects weeks ago.

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Ham Shipey
Ham Shipey
2 years ago

$86 million for a homeless park. Nice work.

Full Accommodations
Full Accommodations
2 years ago
Reply to  Ham Shipey

At that price shouldn’t they get clean clothes and three square a day? Maybe a swim at 4 o’clock? LOL.

Where Is the Project Manager
Where Is the Project Manager
2 years ago

2011 West Hollywood brought us a $64 million library encompassing a 5 level parking structure, tennis courts and an under appointed council chamber 2014 Approval of $86 million park restoration including the $3 million grand staircase. 2018 Improvements increased by $5.6 million Total Phase II= $101 million Does this add up? Brough to you by RIOS CLEMENTE HALE aka RIOS who in this time period have designed and completed multiple projects around the world. The City of West Hollywood could have offered a pictorial and financial timeline on their website. They have not and no one appears to be able… Read more »

Michael Cautillo
2 years ago

Ummmmmm. $86 MILLION and several years and I STILL don’t have a place to swim.

Harambe's Vengeful Ghost
Harambe's Vengeful Ghost
2 years ago

Shut up, comrade peasant. Don’t you know there are deadbeats to pay for?

Susan P
Susan P
2 years ago

It took years to get the WH park opened and now it will take longer to open gym and pool. The City spent a fortune on this project and they still can’t get it right. What a waste of land. Too many homeless to feel safe. The project manager that was hired had no clue what he/she was doing. How inept and the City allowed it. Can’t we get better people to run for City Council?

Susan
Susan
2 years ago

Weho managed To build that ridiculously expensive staircase to nowhere, But we haven’t had a pool since the beginning of the pandemic. So somebody got paid a lot of money for a useless object. And somebody is being paid a lot of money for messing up the building of the pool.

LaserEye
LaserEye
2 years ago
Reply to  Susan

It’s as if… wait for it… projects have been messed up on purpose.

Incompetence
Incompetence
2 years ago
Reply to  LaserEye

You missed the point. Incompetence, seems the intended remark, by people or a team of highly paid individuals.

BrownEyedBoy
BrownEyedBoy
2 years ago

I just wish that Shyne/ Horvath/Erikson (S.H.E.) would spend as much time training up #WeHo lifeguards, hiring parks & rec. staff & ensuring the safety & timeliness of the park re-opening as they focus on hotel workers in West Hollywood.

Imagine if they spent their efforts in getting our park opening & functioning after years of shut-down. Instead they are on the picket lines at our local hospitals and hotels. Such a shame.

Where Is the Project Manager
Where Is the Project Manager
2 years ago
Reply to  BrownEyedBoy

They apparently don’t have the interest or these talents as they are beyond the orbit of self serving activities. Anyone that was ever a counselor at summer camp would know how to do this as they were also trained in all sorts of safety precautions and needed to operate on a schedule all of which were evaluated by the directors. That system worked for camp why not for city hall?

Bernie
Bernie
2 years ago

This discussion is super interesting! We poked around, and if anyone ever wants to see where money is going, you can go to weho.org > city govt > agendas & meetings > city council > agenda packets.

For example, Item 2.O (letter O) of the most recent agenda reads roughly in part that City staff recommended that CBRE Heery’s (construction mgmt co.) contract be extended another year, with their pay increased by $450,000, for a new total contract amount of $8,199,369. Also, that the city’s legal counsel’s contract increase by $600,000, for a new total of $1,615,000.

Jaw. On. Floor.

Where Is the Project Manager
Where Is the Project Manager
2 years ago
Reply to  Bernie

Yup! CBRE Heery, that little devil home of Dan Adams. All those little items nearly tucked into the Consent Calendar. Next peruse the Demand Register. Eye Popping.

Where Is the Project Manager
Where Is the Project Manager
2 years ago
Reply to  Bernie

Reading through all the nefarious activities related to Attorney John Eastman and his professional liaison with Trump gives quite a roadmap which would be reasonable to apply to city hall activities. Once interviewed a former federal prosecutor, from an elite law firm in terms of taking on a complex fraud case. His CV indicated an interesting major in English and JD but most curious, the variety of cases he successfully prosecuted. When queried he said, it’s simple, just connect the dots, they were all doing the same thing, then using the best English structure and legalese, put it together for… Read more »

Where Is the Project Manager
Where Is the Project Manager
2 years ago

John d’Amico is welcome to join this conversation, as he occasionally does, to shed some light on this as a PM

Laura
Laura
2 years ago

Why didnt they make a bigger dog park? All that lawn sits there unused!! We need a larger dog run!

Steve Martin
Steve Martin
2 years ago
Reply to  Laura

Unfortunately that was the best deal that Lauren Meister and John D’Amico could wrestle from their Council colleagues, as a couple of them did not want any sort of off leash area to clutter up their new park.

Ham Shipey
Ham Shipey
2 years ago

Drove by the park this morning. Homeless sleeping and hanging out on the tables. This park is a waste of money.

Jose
Jose
2 years ago

And Plumber Park remains a HOMELESS Shelter built around trees.

Barry Mason
Barry Mason
2 years ago

Even the city itself can’t move a project along. It’s incredibly difficult for normal jobs too.