Swanson Pool at Standley Park in University City is in desperate need of upgrading or rebuilding after 30-plus years of serving the community. The U.C. Community Association is devoting its general meeting on Oct. 10, 6:30 p.m. at U.C. High School, 6949 Genesee Ave., to that topic. Community members are encouraged to give input at the UCHS media center after hearing a brief presentation from the Swanson Pool Committee, a volunteer group of residents interested in bringing Swanson up to 21st-century standards. Then the committee will divide the attendees into small groups to brainstorm ideas for Swanson.
Julia Cooper has accepted the challenge of chairing this committee. She brings years of experience as the mother of swimmers who have been on aquatics teams at UCHS. She and her committee want to make certain the non-swimming community has a chance to be involved in the Swanson Pool project.
Swanson was built in 1975 and served as a place for both recreational and competitive swimmers who learned the skill of swimming there. Brook Feerick, UCHS PTSA president last year, grew up in University City and learned to swim at Swanson as a child. She remembers walking to Swanson from Standley and having swimming as part of her PE program. Amanda Weinbrecht, an Olympic hopeful, is on a full swimming scholarship at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Amanda got her start at Swanson, too. Judy Bethel has enjoyed lap swimming for the last eight or nine years.
“I have been swimming laps nearly year-round for health and exercise for eight or nine years,” she said. “Part of the problem with individual swimmers and families dropping off in increasing numbers is due to policy set by Parks and Recreation. Two years ago, they raised the cost of using the pool so high that most individual swimmers went in search of a gym with pool privileges. Closing the pool added to the problem since most of us found places to swim that were more convenient than driving to other city pools. This is no surprise. I expect this has been the strategy all along.”
Unfortunately for University City, Swanson Pool has been set to close once a year for three and a half months to save San Diego money. It closed in March of ’07 and opened on Memorial Day weekend. However, because of necessary pool maintenance, such as applying gel coating to the pool, Swanson is scheduled to close again Oct. 1 through Jan. 6, 2008. To the Swanson committee, this second closure seems very unfair after only having the pool open four months.
How do you build a program if you close the pool twice in a year?
Catherine deGroot-Hedlin, a member of the Swanson Pool committee, put it this way: “The more closures we have, the fewer programs they’ll be able to start or maintain there, which will bring attendance down. If this city can point to lower attendance numbers, it becomes easier for them to close the pool periodically to save money. How quickly it becomes a vicious cycle! Two closures in a single year are simply unreasonable.”
Isabel Vargas is the aquatics director for the Park and Recreation Department. She answered some questions about the concern U.C. residents have about pool closure and maintenance.
“I’m sorry the community feels they are kept in the dark; that is not our intent,” she said. “We attempt to keep the closure dates the same whenever possible “¦ In this situation, the dates were set to be able to complete the work as quickly as possible to open in the spring, when swimming activity picks up. The pool was last gel-coated eight to 10 years ago. About 18 months ago, staff noticed a decline in the general condition that required a new coat.”
When asked why it couldn’t have been gel-coated during the last closure, Vargas replied, “Maintenance staff submitted a contract to our purchasing department to be able to hire a contractor some time ago and was approved in May 2007. The cost of the gel coating is $40,000.”
When asked about who sets the closure dates, Vargas answered this way: “The closure dates are set by the aquatics district manager with input from maintenance staff, supervising recreation specialist and pool managers. It is our sincere desire that with these closure dates, the new pool manager will be ready to begin heavily programming the pool in the spring. I’m sorry we had to move the closure dates, but I sincerely hope we will continue to work together for the betterment of Swanson.”
Please attend the University City Community Association’s Oct. 10 meeting about Swanson Pool, 6:30 p.m. at UC High, 6949 Genesee Ave.