Town Manager John Musante said both leisure services and public works staff have looked at the pool and believe providing a temporary fix is "throwing good money after bad."
Shaina C. Tramazzo, of Leverett and her son Reece A. Tramazzo, 19 months, play together in the War Memorial Wading Pool in Amherst in 2006 when the pool was open. The pool has been closed the last to summers AMHERST – Despite a Town Meeting vote earlier this month, the War Memorial Pool will not open this summer.
Town Meeting member Julia Y. Rueschemeyer proposed increasing the $1.5 million Community Services fiscal 2012 budget by $65,250 to pay staff to open the pool. The pool has been closed the last two summers because of budget cuts.
But the pool cannot open because it needs $175,000 in repairs. “As much as I’d like to see the pool open tomorrow, it doesn’t seem practical,” said Stanley Ziomek, chairman of the town’s Amherst Leisure Services and Supplemental Education Commission.
He said the concrete decking is cracked, someone could fall or stub a toe. The filter hasn’t operated for two years and there is a problem with the piping that carries the water, which if not fixed “means the town would lose a lot of water,” he said.
The commission Wednesday night voted to recommend to Town Manager John P. Musante that the money appropriated by Town Meeting be used toward the repairs. Ziomek said they would like to see an article on the Fall Town Meeting requesting additional money for the repairs.
The Friends of Amherst Recreation is also trying to raise money.
Ziomek said repairs for the pool were included in the leisure services capital budget but not in the town’s overall capital budget. “It’s in the best interest of the town to do it right,” he said.
Musante said that both leisure services and public works staff have looked at the pool and believe providing a temporary fix is “throwing good money after bad.” The consensus was to use the money from Town Meeting toward the repairs instead of for operations. “We appreciate the show of support (from Town Meeting,)” Musante said.
Ziomek said they’d ideally like to have the repairs done during the spring so the pool could be ready to open next summer.
Musante said officials will, meanwhile, be looking at all the town’s recreation needs.
The town has a second pool at Mill River which will be open this summer.
Rueschemeyer said “I’m really disappointed the town couldn’t follow through with the one small change.. that town meeting (made to the budget.)”
She thinks the town “never had any intention of opening the pool.” She feels that since the pool was open in 2008, it could be opened with some temporary fixes.
The continued closing means that another 100 to 200 won’t be able to take swimming lessons and will be forced to go to Puffer’s Pond where there are no lifeguards, she said. She also said that Mill River was so overcrowded last year, that at times people were turned away.