BUCKTOWN — The view into a neighborhood public pool that is set to open on Friday has been obscured by a privacy fence that will be a permanent structure during the pool season, a Holstein Park park supervisor said Monday.
Last week, an opaque black canvas was installed around Bucktown's Holstein Park pool, located behind the park field house at 2200 N. Oakley Ave.
"The fencing is for the entire pool season. Other pools do have it; it was bought three years ago and we finally put it up. The reason for it is privacy," said Shannon English, Holstein Park's supervisor.
English added, "[The fence] also helps to keep debris out."
Parents playing in the park on Sunday, adjacent to the pool, had mixed reactions to the fence.
"If it's for privacy and if people feel uncomfortable, and the fence is so people can walk around and not be stared at, then it's OK with me," said John Pandolfina, a Bucktown resident.
Alisa Hauser says some neighbors find it to be an eyesore:
Miles Terziz, a father of a 12-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy, was also in the park around 7 p.m. Sunday.
Terziz said he has never seen a fence like the one installed and does not like the idea of the pool being obscured.
"It does not look good but if that's what they have to do, then I'm OK with it," Terziz said.
Richard Wallace, a longtime resident, also noticed the fence.
"I think it would be a mistake to keep it up. If something is going on inside, no one can see it from the outside and vice versa. There are other dangers that can pop up as a result of having the pool closed off," Wallace said.
Volunteers from Friends of Holstein Park, the nonprofit advisory council that plans events at the park, said they were not informed that the fence was going to be installed.
"It looks ugly. I don't see why you would want it there. They might have a great reason for wanting it up though," said Fred Schein, the pool contact for Friends of Holstein Park.
Schein said he did receive any communication about the fencing going up and was unaware of it.
"On a long hot day you won't catch a breeze there," Schein said.
Though a resident in a private Bucktown Community Facebook page said he heard the impetus for the fence was a man who indecently exposed himself in the park near the pool, there is no evidence of such activity, Chicago Police officials said.
"We ran a search for reports in the 2100, 2200 and 2300 blocks of North Oakley Avenue and did not find any calls for service or arrests for indecency in the past several months," said Officer Jose Estrada, a Chicago Police spokesman.
The city's 90 other Chicago Park District outdoor pools are scheduled to open Friday.
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