The Pools Will Stay OPEN!!!!!!!!!

**cincygreg** · July 27th, 2006, 01:15 PM

Earlier this week, it was looking like the city's pools would be closing early this year due to budget cuts.
Thank Stan Chesley and Mayor Mallory ("triple M" Mayor Mark Mallory) for working together to make sure those who use the Pools can stay [img]cool.gif[/img] in them until school starts [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

Mallory, Chesley save pools
Duo gathers $140,000 to keep them from closing this week
BY DAN KLEPAL | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Cincinnati lawyer Stan Chesley and Mayor Mark Mallory are raising money to try to keep public swimming pools open until school starts.

Mallory and members of City Council received a memo Monday from James R. Garges, director of recreation, saying the city's 39 public pools would begin closing this week and next unless $87,723 is raised to keep them all open one additional week.

The memo said 11 of the pools could stay open until Aug. 18 - the Friday before schools open - for an additional $24,515, or a combined total of $112,238.

Weekly attendance at the pools is about 20,000.

Chesley and Mallory started calling business leaders, and said they raised $140,000 by late Wednesday afternoon.

"We can't do that to 20,000 kids," Chesley said of closing the pools early. "It's just wrong. Our golf courses are all open."

Mallory said the pair would continue raising money, and would decide what to do with it later.

"What we do with the money depends on how much we raise," Mallory said. "If we come in at $200,000, it might make sense to put aside some of that for next year. If we end up with $125,000, we'll look at keeping more than 11 pools open" until Aug. 18.

The cost of keeping pools open an extra week varies from a low of $523 at Dickman pool in Sayler Park to a high of $3,912 at the pool in Pleasant Ridge.

Many of the pools aren't open during evenings, and only three are open on Sundays.

Mallory said he would like to see the pools open on weekends and in the evenings next summer.

"Recreation for young people has to be a priority, not an add-on," he said.

Chesley wants the city to promise that it will have enough money to keep all the pools open next summer.

"Look, there's no sense crying over spilled milk," Chesley said. "But my sense is, let's fix it, and let's do it a better way next year."

I guess they both understand that ...

P [img]cool.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/sun.gif[/img] LSIDE RULES!!!!!!!!
And for them to make it so the pools are able to stay open until school starts earns them both a big [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ July 27, 2006 10:17 AM: Message edited by: cincygreg ]</font>