There’s a new addition at the Bridgeport City Pool. And it has nothing to do with personnel or in-pool features.

 

Thursday morning, nearly $22,000 in new lounge chairs were delivered to the facility. For those thinking the city went cheap, they would be wrong. A total of 128 chairs were delivered at a cost of roughly $175 each.

 

“For years, one of our biggest complaints has been that there aren’t enough chairs or that they don’t like how they feel; that they were uncomfortable,” said Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Joe Shuttleworth. “We hope this remedies a lot of those complaints.”

 

Ironically, the plastic chairs that have been used for years – and many of which will still be utilized – were put in place because they were better than their predecessors. Shuttleworth said a big reason for the plastic chairs was that they withstood abuse and wear and tear and were easy to fix.

 

“The ones we had prior to the plastic chairs were extremely labor intensive to fix, but the longer we had them it seemed like the less popular they were,” said Shuttleworth. “Part of the problem, too, with concerns about not enough chairs is that we have limited space so that’s going to be an issue regardless of what we do. We just hope this helps alleviate concerns we’ve had in the past.”

 

The funding for the chairs were part of a recent budget revision Shuttleworth said believes took place in June. Once approved, he said the order was fairly quick as the P&R staff had already researched and had ready what would be purchased.

 

“That size of an order did get here somewhat fast and (Thursday) we had the lifeguards and maintenance staff, basically all hands on deck, unwrapping them and setting them out,” said Shuttleworth.

 

The new lounge chairs, he said, are much more comfortable. He said they are a red fabric sling on a black base.

 

“These are similar to the ones at the VA Pool in Clarksburg and similar to what you see at resorts or on cruise ships,” said Shuttleworth. “They’re not the harder plastic, but these are supposed to hold up well.”

 

Editor's Note: Photos show staff setting up the chairs as they were received Thursday morning.