After listening to the concerns of city council and the responses of the
pool committee, I think I may have an idea that will address the issues that
I heard raised.
To summarize, those of us who would like a 50 meter pool want (1) more room
for lap swimming during the day--two 25 yard lanes are inadequate. (2) a
suitable training facility for the 200 or so swimmers in Moscow and Pullman
who compete at a 50 meter distance during the summer. (3) a 50 meter pool
for 50 meter competition in the summer.
The objections I heard were: (1) a competitive pool has to be deep and there
is more use of shallow water. (2) a competitive pool costs too much for the
number of people who would use it. (3) closing the pool for a weekend to
host a meet would lose too much money and inconvenience a lot of people.
My solution to this comes from giving up the idea of a 50 meter x 25 yard
competitive pool and reconfiguring the current pool design to include four
50 meter lanes. Frankly, there is not a great need for another 50 meter pool
in which to hold meets. There IS a need for a 50 meter training facility in
this community. However, 4 lanes 50 meters long would be quite adequate for
the number of swimmers we have in Moscow and Pullman.
If it were not a competitive pool, only one end would need to be deep enough
for diving. The other end would only have to be deep enough for flip
turns--maybe 2-1/2 or 3 feet, which would be usable by a large percentage of
the recreational swimmers as well.
The swim teams could use the 4 lanes early in the morning, when the water is
cooler and no one else wants to swim. Spokane trains from 5:30 to 8:30 a.m.
all summer--younger swimmers start around 7 a.m. This would provide
guaranteed income at a time of day that the pool is not in use. As I said at
the meeting, swimmers train outdoors in the summer regardless of weather. So
unlike the recreational users, this income would not be dependent on climate.
During public swim, two 50 meter lanes could be kept open for lap swimmers.
While two 25 yard lanes are inadequate, two 50 meter lanes are quite
adequate because the swimmers have more length in which to distribute
themselves. The other two 50 meter lanes could be used for recreational
swimming; specifically, the two lanes at the deep end of the pool could be
used for the diving well.
I think if you started with four 50 meter lanes and then put the "bulges"
onto it, you could get your flume slides, "river," and zero beach, probably
without adding a lot of square footage.
I would like to encourage the council to consider this compromise. Second
the proposal back to the architect with the direction of incorporating four
50 meter lanes and reconfiguring the design to include all the elements and
have only enough deep pool for a diving end.
The city provides basketball courts, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, bike
paths, inline skate paths, and soon, a skateboard park. None of these
facilities are required to break even financially, or even show any income.
But when it comes to a facility suitable for swimmers, the additional cost
is said to be "not worth the money." I disagree. Just as we should be
"rewarding" the skateboarders who put effort into raising money for their
activity, we should be supporting the kids who get up early all year long to
swim before school and who spend every day after school training--all year long.
I would also like to point out that competitive swimming is a growing
interest on the Palouse. The Moscow Swim Team has had a waiting list to
join, while U Cities soccer can barely scrape together enough players to
fill all their age group teams. Moscow High School had 30+ swimmers come out
for the team this year--up from about 20+ last year. This spring, MHS has
just enough soccer players for varsity and JV teams.
Finally, the needs of lap swimmers seem to have been dismissed by the pool
committee because lap swimmers only represent 8-10 percent of the pool
users. Yet considerable effort was made to accommodate seniors and the
disabled. I'm glad that they were accommodated, but I doubt that these user
groups are greater than 10 percent. Why are some user groups to be
accommodated and not others? The only user group who is complaining that
this facility is not meeting their needs are the lap swimmers/competitive
swimmers. Surely with a little adjustment, we can accommodate them as well,
without a lot of extra cost.
Lois Melina
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Lois Melina
Editor, "Adopted Child" newsletter
P.O. Box 9362
Moscow ID 83843
phone: (208)882-1794
fax: (208)883-8035
Lmelina@moscow.com
www.raisingadoptedchildren.com