Troubled Waters Over Poway Pool

United Poway Swim Club, a little organization with big ambitions, swims in a city with one of the newest, most sought-after pools around--but, the club contends, it is being left high and dry.

The city’s $2-million-plus pool, with its sought-after 50-meter practice lanes, is swimming in red ink in its second year of operation, and the budget-conscious city decided to cut back its pool hours to save about $26,000.

This leaves the local Olympic hopefuls in dry-dock, unable to obtain enough pool time to practice the 18 to 24 hours a week needed by serious competitors.

“The city staff seems to begrudge our presence here,” club president Bob Francis complained. “We are paying $10,000 a year to the city to use this pool, and they seem to want us out of here.”

The United Poway team is “pound for pound, the best team in the county, and we could bring honor and recognition to the city,” Francis said.

United Poway has one Olympic qualifier--Marc Fairon, who just turned 17--and several nationally ranked junior and senior swimmers on its team of 45 to 50 youngsters between the ages of 6 and 18.

When the city of Poway opened its state-of-the-art municipal pool in May, 1989, United Poway swimmers and parents figured they had it made. They were, after all, the largest local team with a majority--about 70%--of their swimmers Poway residents. So, they reasoned, the pool lanes were theirs for the asking--and were for a while.

City officials, after taking a ton of tongue-lashings from swim club members over cutbacks at the pool, pointed out that competitive swimmers are only a small fraction of Poway’s 41,000-plus population. Attendance averages 1,250 a week during winter and up to 8,500 a week during summer.

So United Poway swimmers find that the local pool--coveted by swimmers throughout the county--is open to them only a few hours a week.

That’s not fair, say swimmers’ parents, who are paying $20 a month per child to keep their kids in the swim club. City facilities for softball, Little League, basketball and other sports are offered to the city’s youngsters without charge. But young swimmers must pay for use of the pool.

The pool has operated in the red since it opened. When Poway community services department staffers recommended that winter hours--November through February--be cut to a five-day, six-hour-a-day schedule, to save about $26,000 a year in salaries, United Poway swimmers were not the only ones who cried “foul,” but they were probably the loudest.

Others included adults who work out their stress and get a little exercise before or after work each weekday. They complained that the proposed noon-to-6 p.m. winter schedule was unfair and the Monday-Tuesday closing was unwarranted.

Other swim teams who want time in the pool also protested.

Rickie Peitchel, United Poway treasurer and a mother who puts in almost as many hours in swim chores as her 14-year-old son spends in the pool tuning his body for competition and a shot at a college scholarship, calls the situation “frustrating.”

“They (the city management) consider us a ‘special-interest group’ and not a part of the community,” Peitchel said. “It’s more than just a little disturbing and hard to put up with.”

Peitchel interviewed managers of other pools around the county and came up with information that supports her contention that swimmers should have the same rights as other youth sports participants.

Tom Paradowski, aquatics manager for the National City municipal pool and also coach of a private swim club there, told her that National City “treats our team as the city team and is not interested in having another team use the pool. . . . Basically, we can use the pool at any time we want as long as it isn’t being used.”

In Poway, the local team does not get special treatment.

And, National City does not charge the swim club for use of the city pool. The pool there is not a money-maker, Paradowski said, “it is a community service.”

The Escondido Swim Club has unrestricted use of two city pools, without charge, and is a city-sponsored team. Chula Vista’s swim team also is city sponsored.

Rancho Bernardo’s Blue Fins swim club, with 200 swimmers, pays $1,000 a year for use of three San Diego city pools. Coronado Swim Assn. pays $405 a month to use the pool up to 30 hours a week. United Poway paid more than $10,000 to use the community pool last year.

Heartland Swim Club in the El Cajon-La Mesa area has about 200 swimmers. It uses several area pools at a cost less than United Poway pays for its less than 50 swimmers.

The only place in the county that charges more for pool use than Poway is the Jewish Community Center in San Diego, which has an exclusive contract with Swim San Diego.

Poway city aquatics staffers and lifeguards were hesitant to talk about the brouhaha that has evolved into a standoff between the private swim clubs and the city community services staff, with Poway City Council in the middle.

One staffer, who asked that his name not be used, said the swim clubs, “especially United Poway, are trying to take over the pool and keep it for their exclusive use. When they are in here swimming laps, nobody else can do anything.”

Bob Thomas, city community services director, said only about 65% to 70% of the pool’s operating costs are covered by revenues; the rest must be taken from the city’s shrinking general fund.

Because of the outcry, the City Council has restored some time to the winter hours, which are still shorter than the rest of the season. But that has not stilled complaints from United Poway or other swim clubs who want to use the pool when others do not--very early in the morning or late in the evening.

Thomas said the city’s economic situation will not allow for staffing to extend the hours. He also countered claims that swim clubs could use their own members, with lifeguard certification, during off-hour practices by saying, “No matter who is watching the swimmers, it is ultimately the city which is liable if an accident should happen.”

“We did a lot of ducking” the night that pool users took their beef about shortened hours to Poway City Council, Thomas said. “But the city built that pool to be used, and when the swimmers are using the 50-meter lanes, it ties up almost the entire pool and prevents others from using it.”

To settle the issue, the council has created a committee to study the situation. The committee will include members of swim teams, two councilmen, city staff members, pool staff members, recreation committee members and resident swimmers who don’t belong to a swim club.