Northeast El Paso's Veterans Aquatic Center closed for repairs in June 2025.
The Veterans Aquatic Center in Northeast El Paso closed for repairs in June 2025.
The Closure
The city's line for the morning is direct: "It's time to dive back in, Northeast El Paso!" The celebration list is refreshments, a water aerobics class and free recreational swimming.
The ceremony is set for 9 a.m., an hour before the public portion. Both are tied to Salem Drive, in the Northeast, at the address the city has used for the aquatic center.
That program is what the posting actually offers: a hosted celebration with a class and a free swim, not a published weekly schedule. Swimmers who show up this morning are looking at a window that ends at noon.
Pool Repairs
Repairs were the reason for the facility's closure.
Restrooms and offices get energy-efficient LED lighting. Concrete floors were resurfaced and sealed.
The $1.3 million figure is the city's approximate total for the indoor pool. Paint and partitions sit on the same list as the roof and the HVAC, which is the practical point of an indoor natatorium: the building has to survive the humidity the pool makes.
Closed Since June 2025
The shutdown was long enough to cover two summers. El Paso Matters reported that the 48-year-old Veterans Aquatic Center, at 5301 Salem Drive, closed for repairs in June 2025 and might not reopen until fall.
As of April 23, 2026, that reporting still had the pool likely closed until fall 2026, or until the work was finished.
The closure also took the home water from a city team. El Paso Matters reported that the Sea Devils, the Northeast summer swim team, were without their primary pool at Veterans Park for a second straight summer.
Busier Pools, a Wider Gap
The Salem Drive work lands in a city aquatics system whose books have moved faster than its ticket revenue. Hoodline reported that the shortfall between aquatics revenues and expenses grew from $1.7 million in 2016 to $5.3 million in 2025. Over that same stretch, revenues rose 91% while expenses climbed 178%.
Attendance went the other way from the balance sheet. Visits to city pools rose from about 220,000 in 2021 to nearly 690,000 in 2025. More people in the water, and a much larger gap between what the programs take in and what they cost.
The fiscal 2027 budget includes $1.5 million for parks and recreation amenity replacements and improvements, a citywide line rather than a Salem Drive account. In May, El Paso Matters reported that a parks master plan expected this fall would look at which facilities should be expanded, upgraded, repurposed or closed.
The Other Building on Salem Drive
The Veterans Recreation Center also got a ribbon in the last two years. KVIA reported a grand reopening for the Veterans Recreation Center at 5301 Salem Drive, scheduled for 4 p.m. on January 27, 2025. That remodel was $1.5 million and was funded through the 2012 Quality of Life bond.
The Veterans Aquatic Center and the Veterans Recreation Center are both named El Paso facilities.
Other El Paso pools have had their own interrupted seasons. In August 2022, KFOX14 reported the city planned to reopen the Armijo, Hawkins and William W. Cowan aquatic centers after they had been closed for most of the summer. CBS4 reported a planned reopening of the Pat O'Rourke Community Recreation and Aquatic Center after a temporary renovation closure, with $1 million in enhancements through the same 2012 bond, including new wall openings in the weight room and gym, an automatic door at the senior center room, and repairs to 12 basement concrete columns.
For Northeast swimmers, the Sea Devils had to do without their primary pool at Veterans Park for a second straight summer.
