Pool should include diving board

To the editor:
Where do I start? I think perhaps the coup-de-grace came today when I received a phone call from some good friends who tried to take their children and grandchildren to the pool at 2:30 p.m. to find it closed. I was going to join them until that time. And we have all purchased our season tickets as we always do only to find the pool closed just because we had things we needed to take care of and weren’t there until later. Is that not why the pool’s published hours are noon to 5 p.m. or 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. or noon until 4:30 p.m. as they are on free Mondays. Try explaining to those five grandchildren that, yes we have a pass, but we weren’t here on time apparently. Published hours are published hours. The pool costs no more to maintain than if is closed. It’s full of water anyway. I know you have excess guards as you must be prepared for a large number but then send some guards home. Let those of us who utilize this pool and keep the snack stand going take advantage of it during all published hours.
Let’s face it, it was a long, hard winter and a colder than normal summer. The pool time is cut short this year anyway since they are going to close the day before school starts to begin work on the new pool. Many times this summer it hasn’t been warm enough until later in the day. But we paid for our passes knowing this and accepting the fact that this needs to be done to get a new pool for the summer of 2015. We’d heard of this rule years ago but let’s face it, I still know of many, many families going to Berne and Fort Recovery this year due to the condition of our pool. I also know many times when we’ve been there this rule has been bypassed. Were we supposed to make reservations during published open hours?
I’ve been quite concerned about another situation also and wasn’t sure who or where to vent my concerns ... so here goes. When the tentative plan was printed in The CR earlier this year I noticed right away no diving boards were shown. Knowing that we have had boards for well over 50 years and knowing the area pools have boards also, dumb me thought this was just a slight on the printed plan. I mean after all those boards are busy all the time. A park board member would know that if they ever came to the pool when it is open. I began to talk to people about this and heard “rumors” like we don’t need boards because no one uses them; “rumors” like it is just an added expense to insure them; rumors like the swim teams don’t need them.
I invite the park board members to come visit the pool while they are open. Come on a warm day and spend an hour seeing how this pool and its current amenities are actually used. Come soon because we only have one more week. I read in The CR that the park board visits the pool to monitor its condition when it is empty ... but seriously folks please come when it is open.
All of us have done our dives, cannonballs, can openers, pencils, forward flips, backward flips and just held our noses and jumped off these very boards. In recent years with the invention of the one piece “floatie” we see the 3 year olds going off the board. You always hear the kids saying come watch me go off the board. It is a big deal. Where do you suppose our divers begin? Do they all wait until high school to learn? I don’t think so. I didn’t, my daughter didn’t and these kids aren’t. FYI, these kids range in age from 3 to 63. Yup, you heard it. The parents and grandparents are going off the boards too.
This last pool and boards lasted 50 plus years. Please reconsider your thinking about these boards and try not to make every decision you make a cost cutting decision if it causes the swimming pool amenities to suffer.
We are so ready for that new pool. I feel like the kid in the car asking if we are there yet. Are we?
Melodi Haley
Portland