Thank you for expending so much personal effort for this community
project. I agree that all groups expressing interest should be
equally considered. I encourage the city council to fully consider your
proposal.
Frank Albrecht
On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Lois Melina wrote:
> To: Members of City Council
> From: Lois Melina
> Date: March 12, 1998
>
>
> Thank you for allowing me, and others, to speak last night about our
> concerns with the proposed new pool.
>
> 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
> ************************
> 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
>