Recreation Plans Are Pools Apart
Some want to plunge into construction of a new city swimming pool.
Others see it as a place for public gyms, where teenagers can shoot hoops instead of hanging out on East Sherman Avenue.
The City Council is quite interested in a center that includes a pool, two gyms as well as other recreational facilities. Tonight, the public gets the opportunity to add its ideas to the mix during a meeting at North Idaho College’s Student Union Building from 7 to 9 p.m.
Whatever the community decides on likely would be built at the corner of Fifth and Front, where the city’s Park and Recreation offices are now.
Coeur d’Alene hasn’t had a public swimming pool since the YMCA closed its operation in 1993.
Jack Stilwell, parent of two middle-school-age, competitive swimmers, is pushing for a competition-size pool with viewing galleries. It would be good for families like his, and it would generate swimming meets and business for motels and restaurants, he said.
Both Coeur d’Alene high schools have swim teams, and neither has a pool. The Lake City doesn’t “even have a program - given all of the water sports, other than private clubs,” Stilwell said. “It’s a bit of a shame.”
The United Way is interested in a center with offices for the non-profit agencies it serves. That would allow them to share secretaries, fax machines and other overhead and devote more of their dollars to their programs, said Lucinda Ade, executive director.
United Way hasn’t made a commitment to help pay for such a project, but is waiting to see how the project shapes up.
The city has estimated that a pool with recreation center and community meeting room would cost about $3.5 million. A city survey in the late 1980s made it clear people don’t want property taxes to pay for such a project, said John Austin, city finance director.
There are no firm funding proposals. The city could consider selling memberships, as Nampa, Idaho, has, Austin said.
One option might be having a private investor build the center and lease it back to the city, Austin said. A generous benefactor also is welcome.
, DataTimes