Pool’S Length Debated Commissioner Proposes New Facility Be 50 Meters

Wed., Sept. 13, 2000

By Adam Lynn adaml@spokesman.com

Spokane County Commissioner Phil Harris is making waves about the size of a new swimming pool planned for a Valley park.

Harris prompted a nearly hour-long debate among commissioners and county staff Tuesday by suggesting the new pool at Valley Mission Park be 50 meters long. Current plans call for a 75-foot-long pool. Harris also said the pool should be constructed so it eventually can be enclosed.

That would make it the only enclosed 50-meter pool in the county. Fifty meters is roughly 162 feet.

“I’d like to see some Olympic swimmers come out of our county someday,” Harris said. “I think a 50-meter pool is the way to go. We ought to do something right for once. We ought to have some long-range vision.”

But County Administrator Francine Boxer said parks officials have been working on the current plan for nearly two years and are designing the 75-foot pool now.

Switching gears would delay construction indefinitely and could mean there would be no pool at all at Valley Mission Park next year, Boxer said.

Such a delay would be unacceptable, said Commissioner Kate McCaslin, whose district includes Valley Mission Park.

“The pool we’ve designed will serve the majority of the people,” McCaslin said. “It would be a disservice not to go ahead.”

Commissioner John Roskelley agreed with McCaslin, but reserved judgment until parks officials gathered revenue forecasts for a 50-meter pool.

They are expected to deliver those numbers to commissioners next week.

The new pool will replace an old, leaky one at the park.

As designed, the new pool will cost about $1.5 million to build. Most of that money has already been set aside.

Lengthening it to 50 meters would cost another $500,000; enclosing it would be upwards of $2 million more.

Harris said he would support taking the $500,000 out of the county’s reserve fund next year to pay for the bigger pool.

But McCaslin said local swimmers, some of whom have lobbied commissioners for the bigger pool, should do some fund raising to help pay for a larger facility.

“I think it would be wonderful to have a 50-meter pool,” she said. “But then we should build another pool, not hold up this one.”

County officials are currently discussing building a new pool in the northern part of the county.

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