Good, careful fun

You have set aside $43,000 to build a fancy swimming pool in your backyard. You have a dozen grandchildren, and though that money might be spent more practically for braces or a math tutor, you have made family recreation an important value. You envision the grandkids playing in the pool on hot summer days. Their parents tag along. And you pass on to all of them family stories and wisdom.

You are paying for the pool with hard-earned money, so you carefully pick the pool designer and the contractor. You work with these professionals and explain how you need part of the pool deck built under the maple tree, because one grandchild is ultrasensitive to the sun. And you need a challenging diving board for the twins, who hope to dive in the Olympics someday.

As you plan, you envision what the swimming pool will come to mean to the grandkids after you have passed on. They will cherish memories of belly flops and barbecues, of diving contests and daydreaming. They will remember that they felt looked after in the summer, because the opposite feeling arises when children get trapped inside on a boring, hot summer day.

You have created a family legacy, envisioned, planned and executed with intention and care.

Last fall, Spokane voters agreed to spend some of their hard-earned money on a $43 million bond that will pay for five modern swimming pools to replace five aging pools. The money will also pay for a new pool somewhere on the city’s northwest side to replace two closed pools at Shadle Park.

The bond was an act of faith and hope for our children’s future. Swimming pools are not the most practical public projects. They don’t make the potholes in our streets any less deep.

Swimming pools are projects that convey care for our children’s needs for fun and exercise. Indeed, the bond issue passed by a startling 68 percent. One theory why: Adults remembered fondly their neighborhood pools, and they wanted their children and grandchildren to form similar memories.

All of which leads to the point: Just as you wouldn’t leave all the planning details of an expensive backyard pool project to others, you shouldn’t neglect the planning of these public pools. This week and again next month, the public is being asked to provide feedback and learn more about replacement pools for Hillyard, Comstock, Witter, Liberty and Cannon and to discuss where the Shadle replacement pool will be located.

Attend one or all of these meetings and become part of a city legacy that will endure long past your swimming days.