To the Editor:
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and its Saratoga/Capital District Regional Office along with the operating staff at John Boyd Thacher/Thompsons Lake State Parks have done a great job at the park over the past couple of decades.

They built the Emma Treadwell Thacher Nature Center on Thompsons Lake in 2001 with a significant donation from Fred and Martha Schroeder. The Office of Parks added significant acreage in 2004 and 2006 bringing the total area of the park to 2,482 acres while also combining Thacher Park and Thompsons Lake Campground.

The much-needed John Boyd Thacher State Park Visitor Center was completed in 2017. Also, new restroom buildings have been constructed with new water lines and septic systems.

And furthermore new trail systems were created, reorganized, and maintained, etc. with the added help of volunteers and Friends of Thacher Park. The Friends of Thacher Park was organized back in the 1990s and has been a contributing asset to the park. The park staff is to be commended for the general maintenance and upkeep of the parks.

The educational programs, events, and things to do that they offer to the public regularly are well received by visitors.The staff members are friendly, courteous, and outgoing.

Yet there is something still glaringly missing from Thacher Park, which was a major attraction with the general population and visitors to Albany’s Capital Region of New York state.

I’m talking about the Olympic-sized pool, pool house, snack bar, spray pools, sun deck, showers, and restrooms that used to be at Thacher Park. There were also accompanying basketball courts.

Historically, since major renovations by New York state to the park in 1954, the three biggest attractions at Thacher Park were the Overlook Parking Area, the Indian Ladder Trail, and the Olympic swimming pool facilities.

The pool quickly contributed to drawing over a half-million visitors to the park annually. By 2006, the pool was having structural problems and the state announced a project to renovate the pool complex for $3 million.

They assured the public when they closed the pool in 2006 that the New York State Office of Parks would replace the old pool with a new one and interactive water play structure, a large looping waterslide, and spray-pad area.

There was to be a new pool house with showers, restrooms, lockers, and sun deck, just like the old one. Grant money was available from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. They wouldn’t even have to blast a new hole for the pool into the limestone, like the first time. The hole is already there. Of course now, in 2023, it is full of dirt.

My friend, Mike Vincent, worked at Thacher Park for 27 years and held many titles, eventually rising to acting manager.

He is 75 years old now and started going to the park to swim when he was about 10.

Thousands of Capital Region children learned to swim at Thacher Park. My friend Ken George of Voorheesville, who is 98 this year, was a lifeguard and swim coach at Thacher Park in his youth.

Busloads of children were brought to Thacher Park in summer to swim and experience nature. Mike says the old pool held 675,000 gallons of water that was supplied by a pipeline from Thompsons Lake. The pool was removed in 2010.

The New York State Office of Parks broke its word and we citizens got nothing to replace our pool. I also used that pool often in my youth!

Memories and friendships were made there. Now take note of this: The New York State Office of Parks maintains pools at many other state parks. Here is a list of some of them.

How about they have two pools at Saratoga Spa State Park near the Office of Parks Regional Office which oversees Thacher Park. They have the Peerless Pool complex there. It has a main pool with a separate side pool with a 19-foot double slide and a children’s wading pool with a mushroom fountain.

The second pool there is called the Victoria Pool.

Other state parks with pools are at these state parks: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Keewaydin, Bear Mountain, Rockland Lake, Fort Niagara, Riverbank, and High Top.

And there may be more I don’t know about. The 2020 Census reported 314,848 people living in Albany County. In 2011, New York declared the “Capital Region of Albany” the state’s official name for the eight-county region consisting of 1.1 million people.

Don’t you agree all these people could use another public pool at this point in time of rising temperatures?

Let’s agree, Thacher Park is the closest, most significantly recognized state park to the New York State capital city of Albany and is only about 12 miles from the city. Thacher Park has easy access from the city and is revered by many as a remarkably special place.

This is annually supported by the Times Union newspaper’s “Best of the Capital Region” contest.
Thacher Park is soon to be recognized by the Department of the Interior as a National Natural Landmark.

With summers getting hotter and Thacher Park having historically had a pool, it’s an appropriate attraction and not a detraction. Admission fees will offset maintenance costs. Snack bars properly run and managed can profit.

New York state thought it was important to have a pool at the park in the 1950s and it’s even more appropriate and needed in 2023 and later.

Some will argue people have home pools and Thompsons Lake Beach will be adequate. They are wrong. Few homes have pools compared to the total number and the beach at the lake is often crowded with campers who stay there.

Our New York State Office of Parks leaders and our representative politicians need to find a way to give us relief from the worsening summer heat.

Bring back the pool to Thacher Park!

The Helderbergs and Thacher Park have always been the cooling retreat from the urban areas of the Mohawk and Hudson valleys because of the elevated topography. People from Albany would build summer residences in the Helderbergs because of the fresh mountain air and cooler nights in summer.

Now we are contending with climate change and muggy tropical-type weather. We know this will get worse!

Somebody who’s been elected to public office or hired/appointed by New York State Office of Parks, to look out for our welfare, better get their asses in gear and make a plan to bring back the pool facilities at Thacher Park.

Give the people a public pool and they’ll remember who did that. I’ll be watching to see who takes the initiative to make it happen. That person could be remembered like the Thachers are, and always will be.

Timothy J. Albright

Meadowdale