First opened in 1955 and beloved by generations of children, the centrally located War Memorial Pool closed two years ago but suddenly came back from the dead with an improbable combination of a seldom used town meeting "motion to reconsider" (the Community Services Budget) by Julia Rueschemeyer which passed 93/72, and then her follow-up motion to amend the budget by adding $65,250 to fund operations this summer.
The Select Board voted 4-1 against the motion to reconsider and the Grinch-like Finance Committee voiced their displeasure. Leisure Services Director Linda Chalfant had nothing positive to say. But recreation czar Stan Ziomek, who spearheaded the construction of the pool 55 years ago, spoke passionately in defense of renovating and reopening the aging facility.
The motion carried 92/75.
$65K is what -- two police officers? And it takes what, 4.5 officers to have one on-duty officer 24/7, right?
ReplyDeleteAnd for this, we have something for the kids to do -- something positive for them to do -- something other than all of the other stuff that we have to hire police officers to stop them from doing.
This strikes me as a bargain...
And taking it further, what if you opened it earlier (like now) and invited the UM students to use it. Maybe have an over-18/under-21 nite with a 'wet T-shirt contest' and the rest -- instead of driving the UM students from where you don't want them, how about encouraging them to be some place else -- it is cheaper and easier to re-direct than to block.
Just like in the martial arts, it is easier to re-direct.
More like $40,000 as the pool generates revenues estimated at $25,000 per season.
ReplyDeleteAnd this year the golf course (used almost exclusively by adults, about half from outside Amherst) is on course to lose that much.
You simply cannot expect 150+ people to sit there night after night merely to be a rubber stamp for Select Board and Finance Committee.
ReplyDeleteIf the pool has been unused for a long period of time, what repairs are needed to start it up again?
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of having a pool -- my kids loved it! But do we have the money to fund it? And if we do, why don't we?
Isn't there a recent federal law at play here, too? I seem to remember a requirement for drains that could not trap swimmers. (This is very unlikely, but federal law still mandates protection from that risk, costing big bucks for upgrades.). My prediction: this is Amherst-- nothing is ever as cheap as it first looks. This is gonna cost a lot more than the $62K pushed through over the objections of the finance committee. And because it's so late in the year, there probably won't be much to show for it. Oh well, it's just $62K. This is the boneheaded sort of stuff that leads to constant overrides.
ReplyDeleteGo Rueschemeyer! Lead us!
ReplyDeleteDoes Madam Rueschemeyer want to run for Select Board when the crazies seek to return as soon as 2013?
ReplyDeleteOf course, she is "tainted" by her association with Catherine Sanderson, which will hurt her with the "Sustainable Property Values" Limo Liberals in town.
How is it that such a beloved and valued institution could have remained shuttered for two years with no sign that it would ever be re-opened? The answer is simple: there is no interest group of public employees whose jobs were threatened by its closure. It's extraordinarily difficult to cut public spending when there are full-time employees who can advocate from within the system for their positions and departments, regardless of productivity or value of their departments. War Memorial Pool had no such constituency of public employees. Hooray for Town Meeting for overruling the bureaucrats who just weren't that interested in what the people actually wanted! The people have spoken! Let government be responsive to the people!
ReplyDeleteditto for the schools.
ReplyDeleteI think that anon 10:53 p.m is on to something significant here: our budget process is distorted by the relative number, power and influence of the public employees who could lobby for their respective area of government, their particular piece of the pie. We've seen it with the schools; we've seen what happens when teachers and administrators join together to circle the wagons to influence the system. (Gus Sayer, conditioned by his previous professional life in Amherst, thought the same sort of aggressive defensiveness would work in South Hadley against the criticisms made by the DA, and, so far, he's kept his job.)When Steve Rivkin has suggested publicly that the budget numbers are not as dire as school officials have annually suggested, due to declining enrollments, he has been all but hung in effigy.
ReplyDeleteBut there was no one inside government to lobby for the pools in the budget process prior to Town Meeting.
what would rivkin know, he's only an economist.
ReplyDelete