WOODLAND HILLS : Repaired Pool at College Open Through ’93

The swimming pool at Pierce College, spiffed up after extensive repairs, opened Monday to the public and will remain open through December, a Pierce College official said yesterday.

Donald Love, vice president of administration, said the 10-lane pool, which had been closed since Thanksgiving, received about $15,000 worth of repairs paid from the school’s operating budget before it was ready to be filled with water last week.

“It’s an old pool,” Love said. “It’s expensive all the time.” He said the repairs included work on the pool’s decks, diving boards and pumps.

Budget cuts will force Pierce to close the pool on the Woodland Hills campus during the winter unless the school can come up with at least $45,000, an amount he estimated would cover maintenance at the pool for one year.

“The school has to cut corners,” Love said. “If the money isn’t here, something has to be curtailed.” Until last November, the pool was open on a year-round basis.

Harald Johnson, president of Friends of Pierce Pool, a group formed to urge administrators to keep the pool open, said he is encouraged by the progress but determined to keep working.

“Our goal is to keep the pool open year-round,” Johnson said. “It’s the best pool in the West Valley and it would be a shame to close it.”

The pool will hold free public swim hours several times a day for the remainder of June, according to a community services spokeswoman. Beginning on July 3, open public swimming will be held only on the weekends, as lessons, lap swimming and swim team sessions will fill the weekday schedule. The price for lap swimming through August is $28.

Admission for public swimming is 50 cents for children ages 17 and under and $2 for adults.