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There was a meeting of the Memorial Recreation Council on 10 November 2009, where a project that will affect the Memorial community was brought forward for discussion. The Memorial complex, situated between S. 28th Street and S. 30th Street, west to east, and Oceanview Boulevard on the north, and Marcey Avenue on the south, has a number of Park and Recreation facilities, including a public swimming pool.
Over the years, the swim teams at Memorial have become more and more competitive, and are currently ranked among the top teams in San Diego, with a number of individual swimmers considered the best in San Diego. A core component of their success are the parents who have worked hard to support the teams year after year. Some years ago when the City was cutting back the Park and Recreation budget, including funding for the swim department, Memorial parents organized themselves and went to the City Council meetings and pressured the Council to the extent that they were able to keep their pool open year round, one of only two that managed to do so.
In the process, the Memorial parents have gained a lot of political influence, especially with the District 8 Councilperson, Ben Hueso. Some people may know that Felipe Hueso is running for his brother Ben’s seat on the Council. Ben Hueso is vacating his seat to run for State Assembly. Coincidentally, Ben Hueso is proposing to tear out the old pool at Memorial and build a new $2.5M pool (currently only 1.75M in funding from Southeastern San Diego DIF is attached to the project).
At the Memorial Recreation Council meeting on 10 November 2009, the project architect, project manager, and others associated with the project, came to present and discuss design ideas for the new swimming pool. Three basic designs were discussed, Children’s pools, Lap pools, Multifunction pools.
As far as children pool design, there were two basic designs offered, wading pools such as the one at Carmel Valley ( which actually has three pool features), and splash pads such as the one at San Marcos. Lap pools are pools with lanes that are meant for swimming, and are often used for competitive swimming, such as the one at Chaparral High School in Temecula. The third option, multifunction, would incorporate elements from each design type, children and lap pools, and could include more amusement park style enhancements such as water slides and zero-depth, known as beach entry style pools.
In discussing the lap pools, the options were to provide four lanes, six lanes, or eight lanes, including one style of pool that the designers described as suitable for “high-school” or “community college” level of competitive swimming. A number of the Memorial pool parents, who were at the meeting that night, supported the “community college” style pool. Clearly this style of pool would help the swim teams maintain, and even raise, their competitive edge. The pool could also host swim and water polo meets.
Although swimmers from San Diego High School come to use the pool here, Memorial pool is not attached to a high school or community college. Most of the schools within the immediate vicinity are elementary schools; two campuses are multi-grade schools, none higher than 8th grade, as I recall. Community pools are meant to serve the needs all of the people of the community, particularly families and children. A multifunction pool would best serve the needs of the community. The splash pads, beach entry, and water slides are particularly charming and would be a great attraction for families to use during the summer. The pool parents, however, are determined to get their lap pool. They feel that the lap pool can be “modified” for other uses, or that a small wading pool area could be attached to the lap pool. They further feel that since they are the majority users of the pool, particularly during the off-season “cold” months, that their needs should given first priority.
A third option would be to build two pools, a “community college” grade lap pool and a separate children’s pool, similar to the facilities at Carmel Valley. The two challenges to pursuing this option are land constraints and funding. There may not be enough land on the current site to accommodate two pools; however, there is a small amount of land on both the north and south side of the Memorial pool site that might be available to annex (parking lot and basketball court, respectively), some of it under the jurisdiction of the Park and Recreation Department, some San Diego Unified School District land. If that land can be made available then the two pool option would be physically possible. There is the additional question of funding. Two pools would greatly increase building costs. The project is currently underfunded by 1M; where the other monies would come from remains to be seen, especially in the current economic conditions.
The pool parents who attended that nights’ meeting will have to attend three meetings to be full voting members of the Memorial Recreation Council. It is highly likely they will do so in order to affect the vote on the official design, which comes in January.
While the interested parties will work toward obtaining the best option, that of two pools, and we would wish to have the resources to build a large facility that would accommodate both a community college grade lap pool and a pool or pools for the use of families and small children, if that is not possible, to focus primarily on the special needs and interests of the Memorial swim teams would not be in the best interests of the community as a whole. Therefore, a multifunction pool would seem to be the best second option.
There was a meeting of the Memorial Recreation Council on 10 November 2009, where a project that will affect the Memorial community was brought forward for discussion. The Memorial complex, situated between S. 28th Street and S. 30th Street, west to east, and Oceanview Boulevard on the north, and Marcey Avenue on the south, has a number of Park and Recreation facilities, including a public swimming pool.
Over the years, the swim teams at Memorial have become more and more competitive, and are currently ranked among the top teams in San Diego, with a number of individual swimmers considered the best in San Diego. A core component of their success are the parents who have worked hard to support the teams year after year. Some years ago when the City was cutting back the Park and Recreation budget, including funding for the swim department, Memorial parents organized themselves and went to the City Council meetings and pressured the Council to the extent that they were able to keep their pool open year round, one of only two that managed to do so.
In the process, the Memorial parents have gained a lot of political influence, especially with the District 8 Councilperson, Ben Hueso. Some people may know that Felipe Hueso is running for his brother Ben’s seat on the Council. Ben Hueso is vacating his seat to run for State Assembly. Coincidentally, Ben Hueso is proposing to tear out the old pool at Memorial and build a new $2.5M pool (currently only 1.75M in funding from Southeastern San Diego DIF is attached to the project).
At the Memorial Recreation Council meeting on 10 November 2009, the project architect, project manager, and others associated with the project, came to present and discuss design ideas for the new swimming pool. Three basic designs were discussed, Children’s pools, Lap pools, Multifunction pools.
As far as children pool design, there were two basic designs offered, wading pools such as the one at Carmel Valley ( which actually has three pool features), and splash pads such as the one at San Marcos. Lap pools are pools with lanes that are meant for swimming, and are often used for competitive swimming, such as the one at Chaparral High School in Temecula. The third option, multifunction, would incorporate elements from each design type, children and lap pools, and could include more amusement park style enhancements such as water slides and zero-depth, known as beach entry style pools.
In discussing the lap pools, the options were to provide four lanes, six lanes, or eight lanes, including one style of pool that the designers described as suitable for “high-school” or “community college” level of competitive swimming. A number of the Memorial pool parents, who were at the meeting that night, supported the “community college” style pool. Clearly this style of pool would help the swim teams maintain, and even raise, their competitive edge. The pool could also host swim and water polo meets.
Although swimmers from San Diego High School come to use the pool here, Memorial pool is not attached to a high school or community college. Most of the schools within the immediate vicinity are elementary schools; two campuses are multi-grade schools, none higher than 8th grade, as I recall. Community pools are meant to serve the needs all of the people of the community, particularly families and children. A multifunction pool would best serve the needs of the community. The splash pads, beach entry, and water slides are particularly charming and would be a great attraction for families to use during the summer. The pool parents, however, are determined to get their lap pool. They feel that the lap pool can be “modified” for other uses, or that a small wading pool area could be attached to the lap pool. They further feel that since they are the majority users of the pool, particularly during the off-season “cold” months, that their needs should given first priority.
A third option would be to build two pools, a “community college” grade lap pool and a separate children’s pool, similar to the facilities at Carmel Valley. The two challenges to pursuing this option are land constraints and funding. There may not be enough land on the current site to accommodate two pools; however, there is a small amount of land on both the north and south side of the Memorial pool site that might be available to annex (parking lot and basketball court, respectively), some of it under the jurisdiction of the Park and Recreation Department, some San Diego Unified School District land. If that land can be made available then the two pool option would be physically possible. There is the additional question of funding. Two pools would greatly increase building costs. The project is currently underfunded by 1M; where the other monies would come from remains to be seen, especially in the current economic conditions.
The pool parents who attended that nights’ meeting will have to attend three meetings to be full voting members of the Memorial Recreation Council. It is highly likely they will do so in order to affect the vote on the official design, which comes in January.
While the interested parties will work toward obtaining the best option, that of two pools, and we would wish to have the resources to build a large facility that would accommodate both a community college grade lap pool and a pool or pools for the use of families and small children, if that is not possible, to focus primarily on the special needs and interests of the Memorial swim teams would not be in the best interests of the community as a whole. Therefore, a multifunction pool would seem to be the best second option.