Santa Paula Trustees OK Lease to Keep Pool Open

With less than a week before the only public swimming pool in town was to have been filled with sand, Santa Paula Union High School District trustees have agreed to lease the facility to the YMCA to keep it open.

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In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the five-member panel agreed to sign a three-year contract with the Channel Islands YMCA, which will provide summer youth programs and funds to keep the pool open year-round.

The district had threatened to close the pool because it could not afford the $32,000 yearly maintenance costs.

“I’m ecstatic about this,” Trustee Shirley Hendren said. “It has been quite distressful, not only for the board, but for the whole community.”

Among those jubilant over the board’s decision were parents and students who during the past year had rebuked the board for threatening to close the pool.

“Things would really have changed if the pool had been closed,” said Michelle Hendrix, a member of the high school swim team. “The pool gives us a lot to do. Unless you have a pool at home, that’s the only pool we can use.”

The board’s decision came two months after trustees decided to spend $21,000 to fill the pool with sand. The work was scheduled to be done next week.

J. C. Holt, executive director of the YMCA, said he is sure his agency will be able to raise the funds needed to maintain the pool.

“It may be difficult, but I think if the community is as concerned as they appeared to be, we won’t have a problem,” Holt said, adding that the YMCA’s main source of revenues is donations.

The school district had considered closing the pool permanently since last year, when the city refused to rent the pool for the summer.

In February, trustees considered creating an assessment district that would have raised the funds to keep the pool open.

But after a heated public hearing, the trustees voted 3 to 2 to fill the pool with sand rather than levy a $50-per-parcel tax on property owners within the district.

Although pool boosters managed to raise $9,500 through fund-raisers in recent months, they needed at least $12,000, said Tahir Ahad, the district’s business director.

“This was a godsent solution because we did not receive any other offers,” Ahad said. The YMCA will begin operating the pool July 1, immediately offering programs that will include swimming lessons, water exercises and recreational swimming, Holt said.

Holt said he expects to serve about 200 people daily at the pool. Residents who don’t want to join the Y can use it by paying a daily fee that has not yet been established, he said.

“A lot of Santa Paula residents use the pool in our facility in Ventura,” he said, “but now, I think a lot of them will just stay in Santa Paula.”

A three-member volunteer committee, recently created by Holt, has already raised $5,000 for the pool, he said.

In the next few months, Holt expects to increase the number of volunteers in the committee to about seven. The committee’s goal is to raise money for the pool.

During the school year, the high school will continue to use the pool for its physical education classes, and the swim team may practice in the pool when the YMCA is not using it, Ahad said.

Resident Jo Ann Kirk said she was excited that trustees found a way to keep the pool from closing, but she wished it had been different.

“I’m delighted with the decision, especially because the Y has more to offer,” said Kirk, who has a son on the swim team. “But I’m a little sorry that the community and the city were unable to raise enough funds on their own.”