For the second straight summer, the Sea Devils — a city of El Paso summer swim team based in the Northeast — are without their primary pool at Veterans Park, leaving parents scrambling to find places for their children to practice.
“It’s such a big inconvenience, especially because most of the Northeast community – we are working parents – we’re a working community, so, we get off work at 5 (p.m.), push to get home at 5:30, pick up the kids and take them to practice,” said Evone Rosales, a member of Advocates for Quality Urban Aquatics, whose 10-year-old son is a Sea Devil.
The 48-year-old Veterans Aquatic Center, 5301 Salem Drive, closed for repairs in June 2025 and may not reopen until the fall. That’s particularly disheartening for the Sea Devils and other Northeast residents who have seen two other neighborhood pools close in the last decade: Nations Tobin Outdoor Pool in 2016 and the Grandview Aquatic Center during the COVID-19 pandemic…