The $11.3 million reimagining of Romkey Park includes a new swimming pool and many new or updated amenities.

Moorhead City Council

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Moorhead’s sole all-ages public swimming pool will be getting a dramatic makeover over the next 18 months. On Monday, the city council formally accepted a $5 million matching grant and approved hiring an architectural firm and a CMAR – “construction manager at risk” to oversee planning and design of the project.
Reimagining Romkey, as the ambitious project is called, will deliver a major reinvention of the city park on 20th Street South. Not only will the aging swimming pool be replaced with a new version incorporating all the accessibility features now required under the Americans with Disabilities Act – long a shortcoming of the current pool, which was built in 1958.
Ground-breaking for the new pool is expected to take place this fall. It will be closed for construction in the summer of 2025, reopening to the public in spring 2026.
The Moorhead Parks and Recreation project will also improve or add a bevy of features to make the area more versatile and available for year-round recreation. One is a splash pad, an admission free amenity where residents will be able to cool off on torrid days after the pool closes, as it always has, in the middle of August.
Other amenities include pickleball and basketball courts, playgrounds, a skate park, and a manmade hill. The hill will be used for sledding in winter and as seating for an amphitheater in more temperate seasons.
The Romkey project is funded through the federal grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership, matched by the city from its general fund and tax-exempt financing. Originally envisioned as a $10 million project, the cost has risen to $11.3 million with the addition of the splash pad, a feature residents strongly favored in the public input meetings that preceded planning.