Free Rides Keep Youths in the Swim

While Val Verde’s municipal pool undergoes major renovations this summer, free transportation to Castaic Lake is being provided for local children who would otherwise have little to do in the rural hamlet north of Magic Mountain.

Twice a week throughout the summer, up to 60 children ages 7 to 17 can escape the heat by taking a free bus to the lake under a Los Angeles County program that began earlier this month.

“It helps out a lot because the pool does play a major role in recreation around here,” said Neema Chipembere, recreation director at Val Verde Park, where the pool is located.

The County Board of Supervisors approved the $4,000 program after renovation of the 53-year-old pool was delayed from earlier this year until this summer.

The $727,000 project is being funded from a 1988 state park bond measure. The new pool will be about 25 meters long, about half the size of the old one, and will have separate areas for wading, and diving and lap swimming, said Sandy Fiorenza, facilities program manager for the county Department of Parks and Recreation.

Two delays forced construction to start late, said Ruth Roess, a county park planner.

In January, Congress passed the Americans With Disabilities Act, which forced planners to redesign the bathhouse to conform with the law, Roess said. The county had planned to eventually widen the corridors in the bathhouse, but is doing so simultaneously with the pool work under the new law, she said.

The project also was postponed because it took longer than expected to get a permit from the state Water Quality Control Board to discharge small amounts of purified waste water from the pool into a nearby wash, Roess said.

The bus leaves on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11 a.m. from Val Verde Park, 30300 Arlington Road.