Ventura Pool Proposal Just Needs a Site

With its miles of beaches, Ventura has much to offer water sports enthusiasts--except a year-round public swimming pool.

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“We have water everywhere,” said Michael Swartout, a Ventura resident and father of three swimmers. “It is a fair responsibility for the city to provide a swimming pool. People need that.”

It is not a lack of money but a scarcity of land that has kept Ventura from building a public pool.

In 1991, the city set aside $5.6 million to build an Olympic-size swimming pool at Ventura College. But the city and the college have not reached agreement on several details.

Meanwhile, as the city grappled with lower tax revenues and state budget cuts, officials siphoned off $1.3 million from the pool fund to balance the budget.

“It is a shame that this money is languishing,” said Rick Thrasaer, a 20-year Ventura resident and the father of a young swimmer, “particularly when the existing swimming pools in the city are not very good.”

Unless they are content to take a dip in the ocean, Ventura swimmers have few choices:

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The city’s recreation department offers a swimming program using the pools at the two public high schools. But the program is available only in the summer.

For year-round swimming, residents can join private clubs such as the YMCA or the Pierpont Racquet Club. Adults can take swimming classes at Ventura College.

Under an agreement approved by the Ventura City Council in April, 1991, the city would build a swimming pool, bathrooms and locker rooms in exchange for land on the Ventura College campus, said Jim K. Walker, the city’s manager for community affairs and leisure services.

But negotiations ended in December, 1992, after the city refused the college’s request to pay for renovations of the college tennis courts and to build an all-weather track on campus, Walker said.

“The critical point was whether the city was willing to do more than just build the (swimming) complex,” Walker said. “We were willing to build the pool, but to expand beyond that was not financially feasible for the city.”

College officials, however, say the all-weather track and tennis court renovations were included in the initial proposal.

“We already have a swimming pool. Another pool is not a priority for us,” said Ruth M. Hemming, Ventura College vice president for administrative services. She said the college is still interested in a project with the city, but needs more than a new pool to justify providing the land.

The new pool, initially scheduled to open last year, was to be built next to the college’s existing pool. The new pool would be used only by students, and the older pool would be set aside for Ventura residents to use year-round.

The city has not given up on the possibility of building a swimming pool elsewhere, Walker said, but no alternative site has been found.

“The city would have to purchase a property and then build the pool. At this point, we don’t have that type of money available to us,” he said.

One possibility is to build a swimming pool on city-owned land in the east end of Ventura that is slated for eventual development as a park. But because of a lack of funds, Walker said, the city does not foresee any progress on the park for three to five years.

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Another option is to exchange land with residents or developers for a pool site, he said.

Walker still prefers the idea of a joint project with the college. But there are no plans to resume negotiations, he said. Everyone at the college who was involved in the initial discussions has left, including the president, vice president of administrative services and chancellor of the Community College District.

Ventura Mayor Tom Buford said city officials are aware of the need for a public swimming pool but that construction is not likely to happen soon.

Even if the city could build the pool on its own, it would have to find money for maintenance, Buford said. “With static revenues, it would be difficult to find additional funds,” he said.

Many Ventura residents are unhappy about the delay in building a pool.

“A lot of people are disappointed that the city never did anything with that pool project,” said Steve Baxter, who coaches the private Buenaventura Swimming Team in Ventura. “A good-sized swimming pool should be a requirement to any city. It gives kids something to do.”

Despite the absence of a public swimming pool, Baxter’s team has won one of the most prestigious swimming competitions in the nation--the National Junior Olympics--in 1983 and 1987, and is hoping to win again next month. Since 1984, three swimmers on the team have gone to swimming trials for the Olympics.

The Buenaventura team has about 120 swimmers ages 4 to 21 who rent the swimming pools at Ventura’s two high schools.

But those pools are inconvenient, Baxter said, because the team can use them only after 4 p.m. Sometimes the training sessions don’t end until 7 or 8 p.m., which is too late for young children, he said.

“If the city had a public pool, many more kids would be exposed to swimming and perhaps make it to the Olympics,” Baxter said.