The Romkey Park pool welcomed local swimmers and splashers in 1959. It has outlived similar pools’ useful life, usually estimated at 20 to 40 years.

The new municipal pool at Romkey Park is expected to be completed for Summer 2026. (Photos and art/Moorhead Parks and Recreation Department.)Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Watching the concrete crumble at Moorhead’s elderly municipal pool comes to an end this week. When the swimming season wraps up Friday, it’s full steam ahead for a long-awaited makeover of Moorhead’s elderly municipal pool.
At 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15, city leaders will dig in at the official ground-breaking for “Reimagining Romkey.” The years-long need to replace the pool, which has served the city for 55 years, finally came within reach late last year, when the Parks and Recreation Department landed a $5 million Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership grant from the National Park Service – one of only five cities to be chosen for the funding.
With matching funds provided by the city, construction now begins on a plan to not only replace the deteriorating pool (at a cost estimated at $5 million), but also to upgrade Romkey Park from top to bottom. At the head of the list is the addition of a splash pad and wading pool outside the fenced pool area, along with a new recreation center and pool building encompassing space not only for training lifeguards, but also for hosting family events.
Other additions will include new pickle ball and basketball courts, a skateboard park, improved playgrounds for children, several picnic areas, and a “food forest” with fruit trees and bushes.
The federal grant to rebuild the pool was the key, Heitkamp says, to meeting the growing need for a facility that will be safer and easier to maintain that its soon-to-be-demolished predecessor. “Concrete poured in the 1950s for pools and other projects has a limited lifespan of 20 to 40 years,” she says. “Cracks can be ground down and patched patched with bonding fill for awhile, but eventually there’s nothing solid left to patch.” She credits her pool maintenance crew for being able to keep the facility in operation long after its “use-by” date.
The time-worn pool will be demolished in mid-September, the director says. Construction will keep swimmers out of the water throughout 2025 as its replacement and surrounding amenities are installed. “We’ll be ready to go when the season begins in 2026,” she predicts.
Moorheaders first began talking about building a public pool in 1955, when so many cities around the country were clamoring for more recreational facilities. A 13-member commission appointed by the city council studied the issue but decided the $250,000 price tag was too steep. Nevertheless, the community was enthusiastic. Nevertheless, the local newspaper reported, members of the Trinity Luther League launched a fund-raiser they called “Operation Drip,” raising about $100 toward that goal.
Local apartment developer Charles Romkey donated the seven acres on which the park bearing his name now stands. Part of the deed states that the location will forever be in the spot between 19th and 20th Streets where it now stands, east of the area where he built three blocks of apartment houses in the early 1960s.
In 1956, Moorhead voters approved a $185,000 bond issue for pool construction. Construction was completed in 1958, but the opening was delayed until 1959 due to sewer construction. On June 6, more than 600 eager swimmers dived in during its first two hours of operation. A season pass cost $4 for the under-12 crowd and $5 for teens. Teens were admitted for 15 cents per day, with their younger siblings swimming for just a dime.
Gast Construction has been hired to manage the development of the new park, including the pool itself; the firm is also building Fargo’s new Island Park pool. YHR Partners of Moorhead is providing the architectural design. SRF Consulting is handling the layout of the rest of the park.
After its closure this week, the entire park area will be fenced off from public use. Heitkamp says the equipment from the present playground, newly installed in 2021, will be stored until the reimagined Romkey reopens in 2026. She promises, “It’s going to be part of our enhanced playground.”