Opinion

Pool committee seeks answers to basic questions

Tuesday, January 29, 2002

What is a swimming pool worth?

It's a difficult question, and answers may be hard to define, let alone agree upon.

But that's what a committee of 19 volunteers is setting out to do.

In a way, the committee may have an easier task than another committee, set up to help the city of McCook find a solution to its drinking water problem. Fewer people have volunteered for that group, and the difficulty of the task, no doubt, is a factor.

A swimming pool is something many of us think we understand, going there to cool off in oppressive summer heat, taking our toddlers to the baby pool, sending our older children to take swimming lessons.

But it won't be an easy task. The future of the city's aquatic services and facilities may depend, in a large part, to the committee's interpretation of city government's role.

How much does a swimming pool cost?

The pool costs about $75,000 per year to operate, and brought in only about $8,000 in fees last year. Nearly $439,000 in sales tax receipts has been set aside for improvements to the municipal pool.

Most plans have been related to replacing the bath house, which was built as a public works project during the Depression. Of more urgency, perhaps, is the condition of the pool, which is apparently leaking thousands of gallons a day, wasting water as well as keeping the pool temperature low as new, cold water is run in to replace it.

What is a swimming pool for?

Besides recreation, the pool is a classroom, providing a way for Red Cross to deliver swimming and lifesaving lessons that may prove priceless in the future lives of those who take them. Learning to swim can easily mean the difference between life or death.

But there are other venues for learning to swim, such as the YMCA pool, which is also used for lessons, as well as recreational and, in an agreement with the school, for competitive swimming. Is there some way for the city and YMCA to work together to provide the aquatic services citizens need?

Perhaps there is. Perhaps the problems are insurmountable. But now is a good time to think "outside the box," and look at all the possibilities -- and what may be impossible.

If you have any suggestions, ideas or opinions, let someone on the City Pool Committee know.

They include Marlene Foster, Doris Friehe, Randy Korgan, Max Abercrombie Jr., Shelly Sehnert, Daniel Stramel, Kathy Clapp, Martha Roe, Paula Barrett Robuck, Charles Coleman, Jerda Garey Svengalis, Jody Crocker, Roz Buddenberg, Ronda Graff, Mitch Lyster, Paul Wood, Tracy Flaska, Kim Dorgan, Lori Carfield and Karen Hiatt.

The group will have its first meeting Thursday, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Klingner Memorial Room in the basement of the McCook City Library. And, the meeting is open to the public.

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