Under a beautiful blue skies, the Clark Community Pool, located at 201 Oak Ridge Road, celebrated its 40th birthday on Saturday, June 28th.
The festivities opened at 11:30 am with a ribbon cutting ceremony by Mayor Sal Bonaccorso and Town Council members Pat O’Connor, Al Barr, and newly appointed Marie Soyka. Bonaccorso thanked Recreation Director Ralph Bernardo, Manager of the Pool Mike Kozlowski and the members of the Clark Pool Advisory Board. He said, “I think today it (Clark Pool) is the best it’s ever been under the wonderful leadership of this volunteer board. The thing they always come back to me and the Council for is about making the pool better for all of you. Have a wonderful summer, and maybe we’ll see each other in another 40 years.”
More than 1,200 people were in attendance on a beautiful summer day to enjoy the many special activities taking place to celebrate the occasion. Float races, a penny find in the baby pool, a giant floating obstacle course, balloon animals, a DJ, and at the end of the day the LEGO movie was shown on an outdoor screen.
Free hot dogs and hamburgers, watermelon, cotton candy and sno-cones were available all day. Later in the day two sheet birthday cakes were enjoyed by all. All members enjoyed free giveaways as they entered the pool and every pool member had the opportunity to win over 25 door prizes including gift certificates from various businesses in the area.
Members were able to see a large assortment of original newspapers and photographs from 1974 covering the grand opening of the pool. Also on display were the original blue prints and the estimated invoice to build the pool – $374,000.
