Regional Aquatics Center in Bell Gardens closely approaching to its grand opening

Bell Gardens representatives announced that the John Anson Ford Park Regional Aquatics Center project could open as soon as October 2025. This is a 360-day work schedule, excluding holidays, where as of April 9, 2025 crews had completed about two-thirds of construction.

The $31.2 million project is considered a multigenerational center because it will include a 50-meter Olympic-size swimming pool, a therapy pool and a children’s water play area with slides, which means fun for the whole family.

“This is like a dream come true,” said Bell Gardens Councilman Marco Barcena, who has been advocating for the aquatics center for years.

In 2017, the old pool closed due to safety and health concerns. Barcena said in 2018 there was a plan to remodel the area and upgrade the pool but it would shrink to one-third of its regular size. However, after getting the much-needed funding from different sources, the new aquatics center is much larger and the first of its kind in the region.

“It’s the expansion of our services in Bell Gardens, which is a severely underserved community,” said Barcena. “So that means we are allocating our resources to the right place, our residents, our kids and all the people that are expecting better from us.”

Among the guests who participated in an April 9 tour of the site  was Delia Diaz, a former lifeguard and manager of the old pool. She was very excited to see the advancement of the project, saying that  this type of upgrade is what the community needs.

“It’s good to be back because I have children who live in the city but they go to schools outside of the city because those schools have pools,” she said. “I’m ready to buy my pass, I'm ready to be here as soon as they open.”

Osael Romero, another long time Bell Gardens resident and pool manager for the city, said it feels good to see the upgrade because that’s the location where he started working as a lifeguard many years ago. 

He said for the past few years, since the old Bell Gardens pool closed, some of the Bell Gardens swimming programs have been operating in the City of Montebello, but he can’t wait to go back to operate the programs from the new aquatics center. 

Building and maintenance process

Bernie Iniguez, director of public works and facilities in Bell Gardens, said the contract called for an 18-month project and so far they are 12 months in and very close to the end. 

The aquatics center will be open year round and is expected to have three full-time staff and about 30 part-time employees.

Once the center is completed the city will have to come up with about $3 million annually to maintain it, said Michael O’Kelly, Bell Gardens city manager.

“We are hoping to offset maybe as much as $700,000 of those costs through rental programs and still leave $2.2 or $2.3 million that the city needs to find to operate the pool,” he said. “The council is taking some action to generate revenue.”

The funding for the Aquatics Center came from several sources including $2 million from former Assemblywoman Christina Garcia, $4 million from L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, $6 million from a State Parks grant, $1.5 million from former Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard and $14,600,000 from the City of Bell Gardens general fund, plus $3.17 million from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds.

Barcena said is very excited to see that government representatives like him and his colleagues are delivering to the people a state-of-the-art project. 

Romero said it is good to see that the government is actually working for the people and when they are informed they can make educated decisions. 

“I think because our government is from this community, it serves this community in the best way possible. The government is the people,” he said.