SANTA PAULA : YMCA to Offer Plan for Rescuing Pool

A plan to prevent Santa Paula’s only public swimming pool from being filled with sand will be presented next week to Santa Paula Union High School District trustees, who have threatened to close the facility for lack of funds.

JC Holt, executive director of the Ventura Family YMCA, said he will ask the school district to lease the pool to his agency for summer youth programs.

“We’d get 150 to 200 kids a day using it during the summer and we would like to operate it, weather permitting, as much as possible,” Holt said. “We’ll be ready to deliver an agreement to the school district by next week.”

Earlier this year, school board trustees decided to fill in the pool rather than levy a $50-per-parcel tax on property owners within the school district.

That decision came on a 3-2 vote after a heated public hearing in which several residents said they would support the assessment but others complained.

Tahir Ahad, the school district’s business director, said he would prefer a three-year lease with the Ventura Family YMCA.

But Holt said the $35,000 to $40,000 it would cost to maintain the pool annually may prevent the youth-services agency from signing anything longer than a one-year deal.

YMCA officials will make their presentation to the school district Wednesday.