Swimmers’ Alert

When I read that the Santa Paula High School swimming pool might be closed and made into a giant sandbox, I was appalled.

Do you people of Santa Paula, high school trustees and City Council members realize that once you close your pool it will take years, maybe never, before you ever have a pool again?

It has been more than 40 years since the city of Ventura closed the community swimming pool, “The Bath House.” It was at the foot of California Street, about where the parking garage is now. The city promised to replace it. The people of Ventura are still waiting.

You swimmers at Santa Paul High, your parents, all of you former swim team members and the alumni of Santa Paula High, must attend a school board meeting or write them. Tell them you want your swimming pool kept open and, most of all, tell them that you want to help.

Get a committee together of swimmers, former swimmers, parents of all of the above and parents of future swimmers. Plan barbecues at the high school, along with an auction. The merchants of Ventura have been very helpful and generous in helping to raise money to rebuild the Ventura High swimming pool. We are sure the merchants of Santa Paula would be likewise, if asked. We suggest that a service club be asked to take you “under its wing” so that you would not have to go to the trouble of obtaining a nonprofit designation for tax purposes. This committee should write letters to the alumni of Santa Paula High and ask for a donation. Be sure and tell them why the money is needed and be sure to thank them with a personal note. Write to the big corporations, ranches and oil companies.

Write and get in touch with some of the families that have made Santa Paula the nice city that it is. These old families, I think, will want to help to keep the pool full of water, not sand.

This is to the Santa Paula City Council. The $6,000 that the newspaper reported you withdrew from the support of the summer swim program for the use of the pool is a small price to pay for all the benefits this kind of program provides. Do you expect or want the children and adults swimming in the gravel pits or even in the “old swimming holes” of the Santa Clara River and Santa Paula Creek?

We know that you people of Santa Paula can find a way to raise the money to help your school district keep your swimming pool open. All you have to do is want to.

GEORGE GRAHAM

DOROTHY GRAHAM

Oxnard