Honolulu Reporter

PROS website now hosts open hours for the City’s pools, gymnasiums, and recreation buildings

O‘AHU – Want to know when your neighborhood pool is open to swim laps? Or when the park gymnasium is allowing free play to shoot some hoops? Now you can view the schedules for these public facilities from the convenience of your internet-connected smartphone or computer!

In the continued effort to improve accessibility to public parks, facilities, and programs, the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is proud to announce the schedules for the public to enjoy City parks, pools, gymnasiums, recreation buildings, and our parks programs are now available online at the Parks and Recreation Online System (PROS) website: pros.hnl.info

Utilizing the same website and software used to register for park programs, including Summer Fun, you can now search 325 different park locations and facilities to see when these popular amenities are available for general public use. This includes lap & free swim in your freshwater pools and various types of indoor, free play activities (ranging from volleyball, basketball, pickleball, ping pong, and much more). The park listings also include the park’s open hours, contact information for reaching park staff, and links to seasonal enrichments activities.

“We are so excited to make this information easier for the public to access than ever before,” said Laura H. Thielen, DPR Director. “Democratizing when these popular facilities are available also helps to connect our constituents with their public resources; helping to engage the community of park users around the island. We encourage everyone to check out these new online resources, and want to express a big mahalo to our park staff and cohorts in the Department of Information Technology for their amazing help expanding the capabilities of the PROS website. We will continue working with them to expand the capabilities of PROS,  including plans to move the park permitting process online. We processed 20,529 park permits in 2022, and expect this number to continue rising past pre-pandemic levels over 21,000 annually. So, we are definitely looking forward to making this process more efficient and user-friendly.”

Currently, these online schedules do not include permitted use of the facilities by non-City leagues, clubs, or organizations. Instead, they show when these facilities are open to the public for non-reservation type activities, commonly referred to as “free play”. Hours posted are subject to change based on staffing, facility maintenance, park programming or weather conditions. This includes our popular Summer Fun Program, which will impact availability of the pools, gymnasiums, buildings, outdoor courts, playgrounds. and other park amenities while the keiki enjoy them. This will occur on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Tuesday, June 13 through Friday, July 28, 2023.

Additional efforts to improve interactive online maps of park facilities are near completion, and will be announced shortly.

If you need an auxiliary aid/service, other accommodations due to a disability, or an interpreter for a language other than English in reference to this announcement, please contact the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation at (808) 768-3003 on weekdays from 7:45 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. or email parks@honolulu.gov at least three business days before the scheduled event. Without sufficient advanced notice, it may not be possible to fulfill requests.

Original source can be found here.