THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 7, 1995 TAG: 9508070049
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 154 lines
Yet another day of relentless heat was stifling Percy A. Johnson.
Johnson, a resident of the densely populated Camelot community of Chesapeake's Deep Creek section, was trying to keep his restless kids inside again last week.
If Johnson lived in any other South Hampton Roads city, his family could have slipped into suits and hit a public pool for relief.
But, as Johnson and the rest of Chesapeake's sweltering residents are well aware, they don't have that option.
City leaders boast of many advantages when advertising Chesapeake as the future leader of Hampton Roads, but having public pools isn't one of them.
Chesapeake is the fastest-growing city in the state and has an $800 million capital budget, but it has yet to find a will or way to finance a public pool. It never had one, and there are no plans to build any.
Virginia Beach leads the region in public pools with five. The city of Norfolk has four public pools; Portsmouth and Suffolk each have one.
``In some ways, it's almost unfair to compare us to Virginia Beach,'' Johnson said. ``They have so much more than we do in recreation. But we've got to have a pool coming down the line in this city.''
As the region endures its fourth week of record-setting temperatures, it would be hard to find a single Chesapeake resident opposed to a pool.
But city officials say there is no organized, broad-based support for public swimming facilities.
And so, they say, there is little hope for funding a pool while council members must still scramble to meet such basic necessities as roads, schools, sewers and water.
``The council has never made pools a priority,'' said Mayor William E. Ward. ``That's probably because of pressure for other infrastructure needs.''
Ward said he found it ``unconscionable'' that a city the size of Chesapeake - 181,000 residents and growing - doesn't have a single public pool.
``I've been to cities much worse off financially than Chesapeake that have at least one pool, if not more,'' Ward said.
But while he pledged to bring the item to the table once again in the next round of negotiations on capital expenses next spring, Ward said it is likely the residents - not city officials - will pose the greatest obstacle.
``There has been no public outcry for pools,'' Ward said, ``and that has been one of the biggest problems.''
Ward acknowledged pools were paramount in surveys done by the Parks and Recreation Department dating back to 1973. In each of those studies, public pools made their way to the top of residents' lists of what they want in recreation from their city.
But top-10 wish lists will not, in themselves, make a public pool materialize, Ward said.
``On one hand, affluent residents have private neighborhood pools,'' Ward said. ``But the less affluent neighborhoods that really need them haven't been as vocal, at least not directly to the council.''
Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Chairman J. Darrell Morse said he has never seen an organized effort to support a public pool.
``People come out for ball fields, they come out for lights so they can play ball at night,'' said Morse, now the board's chairman. ``When something is wrong, the public comes out and it tells the council that it wants a change. But we haven't really seen that here.
``It has to go further, beyond talk. We're basically in a society used to instant gratification. . . . You can talk about wanting a pool, but that's only the beginning. Things start when you talk, but it takes a lot more than that to finish.''
Vocal support is particularly important for a pool, he said, not only because it must compete with other, more basic services, but because it poses liability risks for the city.
High costs and potential liability were echoed by officials in other cities with pools. Stanley A. Stein, Norfolk's director of recreation, parks and general services, said pools were big-ticket items over the short and the long haul.
``It's no small change,'' said Stein.
Indoor pools run more than $100,000 a year in operating costs, more than half of which goes to lifeguards, cleaning staff and other personnel.
Outdoor summer pools, Stein said, can cost about $50,000 every summer to maintain.
In spite of those costs, Stein said, Norfolk ultimately decided to build pools.
``Quite some years ago,'' Stein said, ``Norfolk recognized that it is a city that is extremely impacted by water. If you take an aerial view of the city, you'll see we're bound by miles of coast and water here.''
That reality, Stein said, made it important for the city to provide opportunities for swimming to residents who don't have access to waterfront property, and to give citizens, especially children, as much exposure to water and safety as possible. Those lessons were as important as the role of recreation for children.
``The city has a responsibility to try and provide reasonable alternatives to kids,'' Stein said, ``so that things like drowning don't become a problem.''
Drownings are all too familiar in Chesapeake, where lack of a public place to swim has traditionally driven residents to borrow pits to find relief.
Many of the man-made lakes are deep, with slippery sides, and though some have fences, none are supervised. The combination leaves children and others who go there to fish or swim prey to accidents, injuries, and even death.
Although there have been no drownings in Chesapeake's man-made lakes for three years, drownings and near drownings have been a common part of the city's summers. Police department officials still actively discourage swimming in borrow pits.
When Estelle Thomas asked Chesapeake officials last year about the possibility of building a pool in a park in her Western Branch neighborhood of Dunedin, she learned the sobering facts.
``We were told it was too expensive to have a pool,'' Thomas, 40, said. ``You not only have the cost of building it, but you have lifeguards and insurance, and you have to maintain it.''
Those costs, Thomas said, kept her civic league from pursuing the matter.
``I think the city would have a pretty good argument there.''
More importantly, Thomas said, the civic strength of her neighborhood would have been seriously tested by a pool.
``We have a thriving civic league,'' Thomas said, ``but it would definitely take at least 75 or 80 percent participation from the neighborhood to take on the responsibility of maintaining the pool and truly meeting the city halfway.
``That is something I don't think we have here right now,'' Thomas said.
Thomas, who was determined not to pass her fear of water to her two children, instead spent $200 on swimming lessons for them at the Chesapeake YMCA.
Other Chesapeake residents said they want to meet basic recreational needs before demanding pools.
``Here in Camelot, as everyone probably knows by now, we've been fighting just to have a recreation center,'' Camelot resident Percy Johnson said. The community has struggled for a gymnasium built for children at Camelot Elementary, and to get recreational space promised decades ago by a developer and the city.
``We need a rec center more than we need a pool,'' Johnson said.
Bradford M. Casas, a former Parks and Recreation Advisory board member who once fought for public pools, said the city's first pool may not be the kind residents want to find themselves in.
Casas, now a member of the Hospital Authority, said that board is discussing the possibility of building a therapeutic swimming pool at Chesapeake General Hospital. The facility would help patients who suffer from paralysis and other injuries.
``It's just an idea in discussion right now,'' Casas said. ``But it's obviously not recreational. We wouldn't be expecting a line of kids outside with their towels and 50 cents waiting to get in the pool.'' MEMO: Portsmouth pool provides reprieve from heat/B3
ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
MARK MITCHELL
Staff
People try to stay cool at Lakeside Park in Chesapeake. Without
public pools, residents have to find creative ways to beat the
heat.
MARK MITCHELL
Staff
[Nancy Strouse enjoys the swimming pool at Greenbrier Country Club
in Chesapeake.]
by CNB