Trust Fund to Help Swimming Pool Rehab

A private trust fund will help pay for improvements to a 50-meter swimming pool at the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center.

The City Council voted 4 to 1 Monday to create the trust and seek nonprofit status, which would provide benefactors with tax breaks. So far, $205,000 has been pledged.

Councilwoman Alice Jempsa cast the dissenting vote, saying she wanted more information on the long-term financial responsibilities of reopening the pool for community use.

“I don’t want to do anything that saddles the people of our city with a very expensive operation,” she said.

Operating the pool annually will cost $100,000 to $120,000, but the city would likely share the burden with neighboring communities, the U.S. water polo team and swim clubs. Costs could drop below $100,000 if filtration systems--built in the 1940s--are modernized, officials said.

User fees could eventually recover up to 75% of the total cost, Mayor Ronald Bates said.

Whether or not the pool becomes self-supporting is not as important as the need for more recreational outlets in the city, Bates said. The community pool at Los Alamitos High School is already crowded and there are waiting lists for swim classes, officials said.

Revamping the pool, last used by the U.S. water polo team to train for the 1996 Summer Games, could cost as much as $1.9 million, but that would include a diving board, new filters and locker room construction.

The city is in negotiations with the military, the water polo team, surrounding cities, swim clubs and others about when to reopen the complex.