Baltimore County has long lacked low-cost swimming options. Come summer, it may have none.
The Y in Central Maryland announced Wednesday it will close its swim centers in Dundalk and Randallstown, despite the popularity of both pools and a recent significant public investment in fixing them up.
Baltimore County invested $10 million in the Randallstown center and $3.26 million in the Dundalk one. The Dundalk pool was closed for five years so workers could fix the cracked floor and reopened only last summer.
“Ultimately, we determined that we are at our best when we can deliver to the community the full Y membership experience, and that was not possible at either location,” Dana Ashley, senior vice president of operations for the Y in Central Maryland, said in an email to members.
Baltimore County does not have a public pool that is free to residents, while the city of Baltimore has 16 — several of which are newly renovated, thanks to the city spending $41 million in COVID-19 pandemic relief funds on them. To compensate for the lack of swimming options, the Y partnered with the county to make swimming at Dundalk and Randallstown affordable. Randallstown and Dundalk are lower-income communities whose residents typically don’t have the means to swim at private clubs.
At Randallstown, public swim times — just two a week — cost about $20 for a family of four. About 30% of the Randallstown Y’s members come through the Y’s Open Doors Program, which allows them to pay a fraction of the regular membership cost. That can be as low as $19 a month.
Baltimore County spokesperson Dakarai Turner said the county is “actively reviewing options for the future of these facilities.” He said the county hopes another operator takes them over.
“The Y of Central Maryland has been a great partner for nearly two decades, and we appreciate their work operating the swim centers in Dundalk and Randallstown for their members in order to aid the County in serving the surrounding communities,” he said.
The facilities will close Aug. 31, and members will be able to visit other Y’s at their current membership rate for a year. Ashley said the Y will try to place its staff in other facilities.
The closures come as civil rights advocates make a renewed push for Black children and young adults to learn to swim and have access to pools. Black children die of drowning-related accidents at two to three times the rates of white children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2024.
Randallstown is nearly 80% Black. Dundalk has a growing Hispanic community and has a median income of about $64,000, making it one of the poorest parts of Baltimore County.
The lack of public pools in Baltimore County dates to segregation, when many public pools nationwide closed rather than integrating.
In 1953, Baltimore County’s parks and recreation department developed a plan to construct public pools at elementary schools, sharing the cost with the education department. The county abandoned the plan, and no such pools were built, a 1966 report indicated. By then, about 150 private clubs were operataing in the county.
In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a city could choose not to provide a public facility rather than providing an integrated one. Depriving people equally did not violate the law.
The county owning pools that the Y managed was always an imperfect solution for both parties. Y managers expressed frustration that they could not make improvements to the small locker rooms in Randallstown. And the Y has built entire facilities in the five years it took the county to repair Dundalk’s lone pool.
“My goal is for us, as the county, to run the pool now,” said Baltimore County Councilman Julian Jones, who represents the area.
Jones, the lone Black council member, is running for county executive. He said he views the Y’s closures as an opportunity to expand the hours and days for public swimming and encourage more of the community to swim.
“Nothing against the Y, but I’ve always had a problem with them running the pool,” he said. “How can it be that we can run the police and fire and everything else but the county can’t run a pool?”
Carl Jackson, who is the first Black state senator to represent Eastern Baltimore County, said he’s frustrated the pools are closing without a plan. Appalled to learn the county did not have a pool from a Banner story last year, Jackson worked with the Community College of Baltimore County to open the pool at the Essex campus to families for a week and a half of free swimming.
Jackson is working with the college to expand that this summer.
Told of Jones’ hopes to keep the pool open, Jackson said: “How are you going to do it? Tell me how you’re going to do it. I’m tired of broad statements. I want to know what the plan is to remedy the situation.”
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