Although you will not know it by perusing the town website (and currently the phones lines are down so you cannot call to confirm either) the War Memorial Wading Pool is, finally, open. As you can imagine anything mechanical constructed when Give 'em Hell, Harry (Truman) was in office is prone to cascading failures: you fix one thing and something else goes.
So parents, you may want to enjoy it will you can. I'm told by a nice lifeguard that the hours (starting today) are weekdays 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM and weekends 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
About the only good idea former Town Manager Larry Shaffer (and now former city manager of Jackson, MI) had over his three year tenure here was to consider turning the wading pool and basketball court at War Memorial into a spray park like the one at Look Park in Northampton.
Since the state was kind enough to cover most of the cost of renovating War Memorial (what us townies used to call "the big pool"), town officials should reconsider Mr. Shaffer's idea in the near future. Heck, maybe Larry will return to Amherst to oversee the project.
11 comments:
I know you are joking about Larry S. returning, but God help us if he does. I'd like to think that he couldn't get hired to shovel out a barn in the area now.
Yeah, I was joking about the former town mangler--but not about creating a spray park.
I think the wading pools (War Memorial, Groff, and Mill River) are all open on weekdays 11 am - 4:30 pm (and sometimes until 5 pm depending on if there are swim lessons or not). The War Memorial wading pool opened last week.
As for the War Memorial phone number, the correct number is 549-6875. The town sent out an email last week with the new open swim hours which included a different phone number that doesn't work.
Ever since it opened the War Mem. pool doesn't seem to be getting all that much use ... maybe having correct info and the updated hours on the web site would help.
two nice things about spray parks: (i) the town wouldn't have to pay life guards to watch kids at them
(ii) they could be open longer hours.
One not-so-good characteristic of spray parks:
if not well maintained they can be quite slippery and a bit dangerous. it helps if they have soft mats.
the pools don't get that much use because the are crazy expensive. Most families think twice before dropping over $20 for a family of 4 to swim for maybe a couple of hours. They need to look at the prices of other community pool admissions. My family can afford it but I still often opt not to go due to cost.
I agree about the per visit price for families, and there is no cap, so the bigger your family the more you pay. I think there should be a cap per family -- maybe $15-$16 per visit.
The per visit cost is why my family decided to get a pass. They are not cheap either ($129 for one month, $209 for two, for Amherst residents) but compared with the daily price they pay for themselves pretty quickly. My family has been going at least 4-5 times most weeks, so it's a good deal for us.
It would be nice if the town could offer subsidized passes for low-income families. $209 is lot for many families to pay.
For $35 you can get a season pass to all the state parks - like Lake Wyola. The pass is for parking - so, you can put 5 people in your car 7 days a week for the entire summer and visit Lake Wyola for $35. Now that's a deal!!
I love swimming at Lake Wyola and DAR.
I don't think the town could ever compete with $35 for a family for a season. (and the state park pass is actually completely free for MA residents 62 and over0.
It's nice to have a public pool option for Amherst residents, and to offer LSSE lessons. I just wish the pools were less expensive.
Those prices are ridiculous! Nice "community" pool Amherst.
This is a classic case of piss and moan over the cost of even having a pool and the cost to the tax payers of using the pool. Everyone complains when the pool is closed but also complains when told how much it will cost them to keep the pool open.
This is America's fate: we're spoiled rotten. The middle class came to believe they were wealthy, as if they too were born sucking on that silver spoon that Mitt Romney and George Bush know so well.
We are not wealthy, America! If you want to have good roads, good schools and community swimming pools, then you have to pay for it. And, as time goes by, the real wealthy will be closing the doors to the rest of us, as they did for thousands of years.
Get over it and make a decision. Pay for it or don't. But stop your damn whining about it.
Amherst may be the symbol for this new wave of whining at large in the country. They've been whining in Amherst for decades. In fact, whining is the general mode of communication on this blog. Even me, now I'm whining about the whiners.
Yeah, you are.
Post a Comment