Politics

Swimmers lament today’s closing of Willard Pool

June 30, 2010 11:11 am by Guest contributor


By Elinor Holland

Despite a last ditch effort by a city councilmember, Berkeley’s Willard Pool is scheduled to shut today, Wednesday June 30. (Watch the slideshow above to see views of the pool on its last day. Click on “captions” for information on the pool.)

The City Council on Tuesday voted down a plan put forward by Gordon Wozniak to keep the pool open by diverting payments from employee health club benefits to the to the pool. The proposal, suggested to Wozniak by George Beier, President of the Willard Neighborhood Association, would have infringed on union contracts.

The mood at Willard Pool was somber on Tuesday, as swimmers grappled with the realization that the facility would soon be shuttered.

“It leaves us without a wonderful resource,” said Carolyn Kolka, who has been swimming three or four times a week at the pool for 30 years. “It’s so sad. Every year, we fight for it, we have swim-a-thons, and this year, we lost.”

During the daytime public swim hours  the pool facility is filled with people who come to play in the two pools, deeper dive pool, and shallow/lap pool. The feeling is very family-oriented. Children come with their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to play around in the water; everyone has a big smile on their face and looks like they are having fun.

“It’s cool—we love it!” says John, 18, a regular swimmer. He and his friends, Devantae Hills, 13, and Errius Jackson, 17, all from the neighborhood, have been coming almost every day this summer.

Kids-in-Motion childcare program counselor, Gina Morri, says that the campers have been to the pool three times this summer.

“We usually go once a week, but since the pool is closing soon, we’ve tried to squeeze in as many visits as possible,” said Morri. “We’re very sad. The kids are pretty upset; this is where a lot of them learned to swim.”

Patrons at the pool must now find another place to swim, which some say will be inconvenient.

“It’s definitely a hardship,” said Lupe Alcala, who has been taking his son to the summer swim sessions for three years “I think that we’ll have to start going to King Pool.”

Some people are worried that without a pool to come to, neighborhood kids will be less physically active.

“I’m outraged!” said Eve Arbogast, a teacher. “It’s right after school lets out, there isn’t much else for the kids to do. You know, with the obesity problem and everything…”

Berkeley is not only losing a pool, it is losing a valuable community center for people to exercise, swim recreationally, and get to know their neighbors.

9 Comments

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  • jjohannson

    Seems like we’re staring down the barrel of a city fiscal emergency. Anyone know when or if Berkeley has declared one before, and what were the impacts on city contracts?

  • tizzielish

    It is unconscionable that Willard Pool has closed.

    I did not like the pool propostion on the June ballot but I voted for it. And I am sorry it didn’t pass. But I didn’t like that proposition.

    I don’t understand why it is in the city’s interests to fund private health club memberships for 425 city employees but not in the city’s best interests to provide adequate athletic facilities to all residents.

    But . . on the other hand. . . I have been reading stories in the local news this week about what the library board is doing with the special funds that city voters gave to the library. It seems, to me, and I am welcome to being told I am basing my thoughts on incorrect assumptions, that the library board is doing things with the special library assessment money that gone beyond the scope of what voters voted for. It seems deceptive, and very wrong, for politicians to ask voters to agree to pay for renovations and then to tear down libraries and build new ones.

    I am esp. offended by the library’s request that the city give the library a blanket override to zoning variances, to give the library the power to, basically,j do whatever it wants, even in disregard of existing zoning laws.

    And I am outraged that the library misrepresented the initiative on the ballot. I think the library should only be able to use the money for what was on the ballot. I know things change in life. . . but watching the library ‘trick’ people into giving the library money for one thing and then using repurposing that money without another public vote just seems wrong. . . and there was much potential in the pool initiative for this kind of politiician shenanigan. It seems once public officials ‘get’ the money, they disregard the promises that induced voters to give them the money in the first place. If I vote for iibrary renovation, I don’t want the money to be used for tearing down old libraries. And if I vote for pool maintanence, I don’t want future politicians to be able to use the money for something else.

    It is hard, knowing what to do. Things change.

    One thing that does not change is that all citiziens should have access to swim lessons and exercise. Swimming is a great exercise and I can’t quite believe that the Berkeley public pools are in such decrepit condition.

    I swim with a lot of Europeans at UCs Speiker pool. I have had many Europeans tell me that in most of Europe, in even the smallest towns, there are olympic (fifty meter) public pools everywhere. It is inconceivable in virtually all of Europe that there not be wide access to swimming pools . . . but in this country, and in a progressive city like Berkeley no less, public health is not prioritized. Make no mistake: swimming pools is a public health and safety issue.

    Ack. I am sorry Willard is closing. I wish a fairy godmother would come along and give the city the money.

  • s z underwood

    You may have seen around Berkeley the bumper sticker:

    Fund Public Need, Not Corporate Greed

    How about:

    Fund Public Need, Not Civil Service Greed?

  • Lanie

    tizzielish – I don’t believe there is anything in the library bond measure that forbids tearing down an old building that can not meet the libraries needs and replacing it with something that will. Have you considered that it may be cheaper to build a new branch rather than try to remodel and enlarge an old building? Would you want the library to spend large sums of money to move old buildings to allow for more space to add on to and then not have enough money to actually build something big enough to house all the library programs? The library has limited funds to work with. It needs to make the best use of those funds and come up with buildings that can provide many different types of service. They held community meetings, the architects showed possible options and they got valuable feedback from library users who took the time to attend. The designs have changed as the architects responded to comments from library users. The architects looked at options to reuse existing buildings or portions of them at South and West and determined that it would be too costly and/or would not meet the needs of the community.

  • Diane

    As an architect I can say it is often cheaper to tear down rather than to remodel/add on. Remodeling is very challenging from almost every point of view (design, PM, hidden conditions as threat to budget, etc). And in fact you may get a more cohesive end structure by doing so. If it were a historical building I’d have pause, but not sure south or west are terribly architecturally significant.

    Anyhow, I don’t really care ether way as long as it can be done within funds allocated.

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  • Lori Kossowsky

    I am so sorry about the closure about Willard Pool. Those that can make it, we still have our warm pool….I know it’s not the same… Temescal pool is close in Oakland, I believe, which was redone a number of years ago.
    I wasn’t thrilled when the our mayor said if he could walk and take the bus, why can’t the kids walk and take the bus to Willard. Right. I hope that there will be a way to open it for the remaining of the summer– somehow, someway.

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    I’ll post the same information to my blog, thanks for ideas and great article.