VENTURA : Officials Study Pool Alternatives
Ventura school officials are considering several ways to provide students with a place to swim on the west side of the city.
The pool at Ventura High School was closed at the end of the school year because 2,000 gallons a day were leaking from a large crack in the bottom.
The high school pool, which was built in 1953 on soil too soft to support it and has been sinking ever since, will remain closed through next school year.
Ventura Unified School District officials will decide whether the pool can be renovated after a study is completed in October. Completely demolishing the existing facility and building another would cost more than the financially strapped school district could afford, said Richard Welcher, district assistant superintendent of finance.
Renovation of the pool would cost at least $250,000, Welcher said. A structural engineer’s report has shown that repairs to the pool would last five to eight years.
The district might be able to enter into a joint development and use agreement with the city Department of Parks and Recreation, which has been allotted $4.3 million in the city’s recently approved budget to build a proposed aquatics center with two pools.
Barbara Harison, parks and recreation director, said the city is considering both Buena and Ventura high schools as possible pool sites.
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