The Plymouth Pool may still open this summer. At the last Plymouth City Council meeting, the council discussed closing the pool due to rising maintenance costs. However, at Wednesday’s ACRA board meeting, Plymouth Vice Mayor Pat Fordyce, who sits on the ACRA board, reported that she would keep fighting for the pool to open this summer. Fordyce answered questions from the board regarding the maintenance costs, explaining that “everything has gone up, testing, supplies, everything.” Fordyce also added that the city has lost about 20,000 dollars per year by operating the pool in the summer. Tracey Towner-Yep, ACRA’s Director, added that it was difficult to even break even operating a pool, saying that “pools drain your budget.” Fordyce indicated she would plan fundraisers to keep the pool open, and also proposed purchasing the pool from the fairgrounds, which would allow the city to apply for grants to cover maintenance and upgrades. Debbie Dunn, Chair of the ACRA board, suggested having ACRA maintain all pools within the county, which would allow supplies to be purchased in bulk and pool maintenance to be performed all in one day. Presumably, ACRA would then charge each city for the service at a considerable savings. The matter will again be discussed at the next Plymouth City Council meeting, which is scheduled for May 22nd.
Monday, 19 May 2008 01:46