DES MOINES, Iowa — One of Des Moines’ most iconic summer attractions is on the chopping block.

Faced with a budget deficit of $17 million, Des Moines City Manager Scott Sanders is proposing shutting down Birdland Pool.

Thanks to rising costs and limits placed on property taxes by the Republican-led state legislature, Des Moines is one of many cities in Iowa faced with the unappealing prospect of cutting services to balance its books.

Built in the 1920s, Birdland has always been impressive. With 50-meter swimming lanes, a slide, high dives, and a maximum depth of 13 feet, it’s capable of hosting scores of Iowans looking for a cool place to play in the summer, and swim teams from around the metro.

It’s also the most expensive to maintain of the city’s five outdoor public pools.

Birdland costs nearly $200,000 a year to operate and needs regular, expensive maintenance. Recently, Des Moines spent $76,000 replacing the roofs on the pool’s buildings. Every few years, cracks in the concrete pool walls and bottom must be repaired.

But although closing Birdland could save Des Moines millions in the long run, officials say it’s a proposal they aren’t excited to present.   

“People do have an affinity for their neighborhood pools,” admits Ben Page, Des Moines Parks and Recreation director. “It’s just not as simple as saying ‘you have four other options.’ We understand that. We’re not excited to be in this boat, either, but we do have to come up with solutions.”

City Manager Scott Sanders has tasked Page with finding all the cuts he can within his department, which is already running whippet lean.

“We don’t have a whole lot of other options right now,” Page says. “We would if we could. When I started in 2007, we had 147 full-time staffers at Parks and Recreation. Today we have 63. There’s nothing left.”

Losing Birdland would also deal a sizable blow to competitive swimming programs in the metro who hold a “long-course season” during the summer in Olympic-sized pools. Birdland and Ashworth (on the city’s west side) are two of just a small handful of such pools in the state.

“This is one of the great resources of Des Moines and a unique structure that brings people from the suburbs to Des Moines,” says Alissa Smith, president of the Des Moines Swimming Federation. “Without it and Ashworth, only the (downtown) Y and Waukee have long-course pools and they generally don’t rent to outside teams.”

Birdland lies in the ward of City Councilwoman Linda Westergaard, who bristles at the suggestion of closing it.

“When we start cutting services and things for kids to do, that bothers me,” she says. “Because I know that kids need to be kept busy in the summer. And the thought of not having a pool — I find that very bothersome.”

Westergaard admits that the state’s property tax caps have put cities in a bind, but insists she’ll never support a cut like this.

“Let’s sit down and let’s talk about some other places that we could cut rather than in an underserved community,” she says. “And if that pool is truly under-utilized, then let’s figure out what we can do to engage the kids in the community so that we can get them there and get them active in the pool.”

Regardless of any imminent vote by the city council, Birdland would not close until after the 2025 season.

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