Bostonians are frustrated some city pools remain closed during another stifling summer

On a recent, sweltering July day, 9-year-old Javier Alexander Rivera Valentin was trying to keep cool at a splash pad in Dorchester, but the sprinklers weren't impressing him.

"They're fun, but not so fun," he said, adding the water spouts shut off after about five minutes. Asked if he'd rather be swimming in a pool, he quickly replied: "A hundred percent."

Valentin and his uncle, Anthony Mercado, were among several families that came to Children's Park to beat the heat. Much to Mercado's disappointment, the nearby city-run Holland Pool was closed for maintenance.

"Open up the pool, please. Whatever you gotta do to clean the pool, whatever you gotta tell us, just make rules and keep the pool clean," he said. "That's all I ask. You know, just open up the pool, because we all need it. We all want it, you know?"

For the second year in a row, lots of Boston's 19 city-run pools are closed. This year it's nearly a third of them, shuttered for repairs or upgrades. Last year it was nearly half. And this summer's excessive heat has left families living by the six closed city pools searching for other places to cool off.

At an event Thursday to celebrate the reopening of the renovated Clougherty Pool in Charlestown, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu blamed the wait for the pools on years of deferred maintenance.

"Many of these facilities had not gotten the love and renovations and resources that they needed over many, many years," she said, adding the city is now "trying to play catch up."

The Wu administration plans to invest more than $54 million over the next four years to repair the city's pools.

Clougherty shut abruptly two years ago because of a leaking tank, a sinking deck and a pool that couldn't hold water.

Residents rallied to reopen the facility — and now the large, two-pool complex will welcome swimmers through the end of summer.

But that location isn't convenient for everyone. And meanwhile, dozens of popular swim spots across the state, including some beaches and ponds, have sporadically banned swimmers over potentially health-hazardous water conditions.

Rebecca Dittami, a mother living in Mattapan, said the lack of options has left her feeling frustrated about the shuttered pools.

"It's terrible, and the city needs to fix it right away," she said, explaining that many of the places she and her family wanted to go swimming at were closed due to bacteria.

Dittami said, for example, the popular Tenean Beach in Dorchester, with its shady picnic areas and boardwalk, was closed to swimmers, and a lot of residents in her neighborhood do not own cars that can transport them to cooling centers.

The city said beyond Clougherty, it expects more pools will reopen sometime in August.

With plenty of summer left, and temperatures expected to spike this week, many residents hope the city's pool repairs go swimmingly.