Thursday, October 11, 2012

The "White Elephant"

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John Adair

No, I'm not talking about Engineer John Adair who designed most of the pools around here as well as our Lake Worth pool some 41 years ago as the white elephant.  Actually the White Elephant is how the city manager Michael Bornstein describes our Olympic pool that is not only dear to Mr. Adair but to all of the residents in this city, other than one who publicly said she "could care less." To this day Mr. Adair has not lost interest in it or in Lake Worth. When you create something that has withstood so many generations and given back so many memories and joy to so many people, it is a big part of yourself and who you are. On top of all of that, it is a great asset to own in the location it is and an asset we have had there since 1922.

Vice Mayor Maxwell's analogy may be on mark. He says that the pool was sacrificed several years ago in order for the Casino project to be allowed to pay for itself. It has been a strong feeling, even for some now on the dais, that everything we have in Lake Worth should be producing revenue.  Maxwell says that the pool was intentionally left out of the Casino plan. What about our gymnasium, our parks...they are not revenue producing but amenities for the people who live here. Not everything has to be revenue neutral or profitable.

Our trolley was eliminated several years ago as well because it was losing money. All of the elderly, infirmed and the poor had to find other transportation. Some, to this day, can't afford to go to Publix and many elderly do not drive. Our shuffleboard courts are being sacrificed as well even though it wasn't that long ago that we had big tournaments there. The Mentoring Center, a facility that attracted and catered to the illegal immigrant paid us $1 a year for awhile, took over the shuffleboard court building for two years and the shuffleboarders and  bridge playing Seniors were shuffled right out. Stanton came in and shut them down but by that time, the damage had  been done. Our courts were trashed and our seniors suffered in silence.

Sinclair Engineering says it will cost tons of money to get our pool in shape in order to open which is difficult to grasp in light of the fact that only a few years ago we had spent $500,000. Mr. Adair is studying Sinclair's second report and staff will come back with costs regarding staffing and the "bathroom problems" (bathrooms that were in the original Casino plan to be rebuilt and weren't) as well as other costs in order to hopefully open our pool once again beginning in 2013.

4 comments:

Dennis Dorsey said...

Apparently Morganti is not responsible for the pool damage if you can believe their video that no one has seen yet. Did the city have insurance for Greater Bay's work as well as Geoff Pugh on the pool repairs? Many of the things GB did were wrong.
D. Dorsey

Anonymous said...

Please list everything Greater bay did wrong.

Anonymous said...

wHY WOULD ANYONE TRUST MAXWELL

Anonymous said...

Too bad our pool isn't in the district one Osborne neighborhood.If it was, I'm sure UNLIMITED funds would flow into it's upkeep! The people in this neighborhood ALREADY have a gym,ballfields and meeting rooms. They have an organization offering day care for the kids in the neighborhood.While the rest of the neighborhoods in Lake Worth suffer, this neighborhood sucks down any available grant funds like there is no tomorrow.I guess Maxwell has to keep the pay backs coming to get Retha Lowe's approval.