Our pool got a reprieve last night. There were four reasons why the city commission did not act but tabled the aquatic facility presentation and any idea to go forward with it at this time--
1. The chamber was 95% in favor of saving our present pool--the room was filled with swim noodles.
2. The Mayor--the pool has been neglected, mistreated and left to rot when it closed in 2012.
3. Commissioner McVoy--Wants the city to develop a list of all the work that needs to be done getting opinions from 3 experts. Does not want to rely on one opinion.
4. Comments from the public. I especially appreciate Jim Finnegan's comments and putting Maxwell and Triolo's mind at ease as he revealed that he was Commissioner McVoy's unnamed source {McVoy had taken heat earlier for not naming his source] who did an analysis on the pool with a pool expert who said all of the pool problems are fixable.
Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell saw the odds before him and did not get into the fire. He knows exactly when to fold them. In fact, he was on the vote to table it. There was no mention as to when it would come back to the Commission and there was no mention that the city would do anything but continue to ignore the problems there thus making them worse.
It doesn't matter whether our pool is old, something everyone wants to tell us. With proper maintenance, it can be fine. We sat through a presentation by Bob McAllister, Aquatic consultant, hired by city manager Bornstein at a cost the city is not revealing. No one really wanted to sit there for two hours to listen to the three different super expensive scenarios for fixing/replacing our pool. We were there to see if the Trio would lower the boom on our pool and all the residents who want to save it..
- Option 1--$2,772,500 was to repair the pool and build a new locker room and make the necessary repairs to the Pump House.
- Option 2--$3,272,500 or $4,612,500 with extra features includes Option 1 and converts the pool to zero depth so that little kids can walk in with no problem.
- Option 3--$7,310,921 build a new aquatic facility
I'm sure that the dollar figures that were floating around were giving Scott Maxwell a headache.
22 comments:
Are they ever going to fix our pool or let it crumble into the dune?
The good news is it seems like our pool will be fixed in one form or another. The public had every right to be nervous about our pool. With the only communication coming out of the city that the pool is "white elephant that hemorrhages money" what were we supposed to think? And the memory of the secret meeting that had Hudson Holdings announcing that they had approval for a 77,000 sq. foot private beach club on the site is still very fresh in our minds.
Getting more than one opinion when you are dealing with repairs of this scope and expense is common sense.We want our pool fixed and we want it fixed right.If it needs a total rebuild-do it . No more half -baked con jobs like Greater Bay stealing our tax dollars and not doing what they are supposed to be doing at our pool.
I agreed with last night's consultant when he said the public needs to be able to see our great pool.
So -it sounds like the city will fix our pool. They better. Or they'll get fried on that third rail.
Why do the commission and City Manager hate the pool so much? They have been trying to close it and destroy it for the last 5 years. What developer is waiting in the wings to take this piece of real estate or make a fortune with some water park? Why do the people have to come to a meeting every year or two to prevent Michael Bornstein from giving our pool to a developer? The pool is gorgeous. I take every out-of-town guest to see it and they are amazed by it. But you have to maintain it. YES. So let's get to work and find out what it needs and then get it fixed.
If you go to the pool now and look at it, it is clean and looks fine, all the people who work there and if you go up one the second floor you can see the pool is still fine as of today. They just want to scare us all and do away with it, sell it out to developers. We all need to stay on their asses. I feel bad for Sally who wants to work.
The pool is fine, look at it, clean water and just fine. Go look at it now. There is really nothing wrong with it. Blame the trio for this crap!
I don't understand the sentimentality of the pool at its present location. Why is it so important to have it there? It is not in the historical location it was originally. It is not salt water like it was originally. It is only historic back to 1970 or whenever it was built. The building is not of any historic or architectural significance.
I learned to swim in the old pool so if anyone should feel nostalgic maybe it would be me or others who remember that pool.
There was a time that the entire beach was an amenity. You didn't pay to park, John G's was a little lunch spot with hot dogs and hamburgers and had a side window at the entrance to the pool you could order take out and eat at the pool. We also had a tunnel so you didn't have to cross A1A. Oh that's right, A1A was in front of the pool and casino.
The point is, things change. At some point we should decide that it is not worth losing $200k a year for having the pool at that location when it could actually come closer to break-even if it were rebuilt on the mainland. AND we would get the benefit of that very valuable space be an income producing asset to the beach park property by providing much needed parking for the real amenity, the BEACH.
Can someone explain the nostalgia for the 1070's era, fresh water pool at the beach?
I first went to that pool about 62 years ago. It was salt water. It was packed with people and opened at night and 7 days a week all day. We had a blast. And it was in that exact same location. We like our pool there.
It doesn't matter whether the pool is salt or fresh water. It is the location.
We don't have to lose money. We need to market it. We need to keep it opened. We need to maintain it and repair it like we would any other amenity.
The only thing that has changed is that we have people in charge who don't take care of our assets and give no budget for basics. It's a disgrace.
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I remember the pool being more behind what is now Mulligan's. What happens to your memory in 62 years? :-)
Anyway, it appears to be further to the South now. Do you remember walking through the turnstile into the little ankle pool to wash off any sand? That entrance was adjacent to the tunnel which would put it behind the restaurant.
I know you deplore being less than correct so this probably won't be posted. But a picture is worth a thousand words.
12 years old, I guess a memory certainly can fade. But it really doesn't matter too much. The pool has now been there for 46 years and we want to keep it.
Anon at 2:19 our pool has been by the beach MUCH LONGER than the 1970's.It was built in the 1940's and was at the location it is now-the beach.Tourists flock to our beach and pool.And just which SPECIAL neighborhood would get the pool if it were moved to the mainland? If you want a parking garage,put the parking garage down by A1A.If you're still trying to work a deal to give away our oceanfront to a well paying developer-FORGET IT ! Try THAT again and you won't get pool noodles at city hall-you'll get PITCHFORKS,tar,and feathers!I wish the Commission had told the county to take their 5 million and shove it where the sun don't shine.The county never lifted a finger to help Lake Worth foot the bills at the beach,even though everyone in the county uses our beach.We lost our parking rights over that stupid deal.
Bornstein was furious last night.I thought he was going to throw up. Where in the hell did he find this group from? And more importantly-what kind of a fee would have gone into his pocket?
The message last night was clear-FIX OUR DAMN POOL!
I find it very funny that previous comments say, Go look at the pool now looks fine. The report clearly said, the structure itself and plumbing are the problem. I do not feel anyone is trying to close the pool. Seems to me they want to figure out the right way to fix it. The consultant laid out three options which make sense. Repair, overhaul or rebuild. I would like something I can take my grandchildren to enjoy. every time I have been to the pool all I see is a few people acting like they are swimming laps. God forbid you accidentally get in their lap lane, Its not a private pool. Lets put up something everyone can use.
The gentleman above has not been to our pool lately. What's the charm? It's huge, it's sparkling, there's a gorgeous blue sky hovering above. Kids are playing. Tiny kids are learning to swim. Bigger kids are jumping off the diving board for the first time, adults are swimming laps, It's an amazing asset, a draw, a delight. You should go sometime.
A pool at Bryant park would be great
Repairing the pool we have would be BEST.
Keep throwing money at it it's one thing after another
All of these comments about the pool, and none about the Everglades. I'm afraid intermarriage to your cousins in Lake Worth has turned you into genetic mutants.
Anon at 8:19pm You silly fool. I posted links to pictures showing the two different locations of the pool. Lynn acknowledged her memory after 62 years may be a bit cloudy. I learned to swim at the old salt water pool. We had summer lessons and it was a blast. I really miss the "real" old pool.
Back then things were much different. If you had a pool in your back yard, it was special. Today, everyone has a pool or a pool at their complex. I'm not condoning eliminating the pool. I think it would better serve our residents if it were located in town instead of at our prime oceanfront.
Everything everyone says above is valid but can also be enjoyed over here.
This is only if the experts say that we need to spend million$ to fix what we have. Some of you have good enough memories (a-hem) to remember we just lost quite a few parking spaces at our beach in the redesign bringing in more green space. We need more parking, not less.The attitude of the "majority" back then was to "encourage people to walk or ride their bike to the beach".
That does not help our bottom line. 200 spaces @ $2.00 per hour grosses $3200.00 per day or $96,000.00 per month. That is over $1 million per year. AND we'd still have a pool. Our pool costs us $200K a year.
Lynn, you are right. Repairing the pool is the best. But only if it is not going to cost millions. A few hundred thousand after all the money we've thrown at it..... who cares? Right. Everything has a life expectancy. I have no idea what it is for this pool. But just like the old casino building, it has a life. It may be towards the end of it.
It is always strange to me when someone complains about the cost to repair something and suggests bulldozing and building something new. It is always soooooooo much less expensive to repair what you have. I think someone is line to get a kickback and that is why they are pushing to destroy our pool.
So you wanted to "repair" the old casino building? Did you want to keep "repairing" our old pot holed roads?
At some point, everything has to be replaced....... except in Italy.
@1:31...totally an UNTRUE STATEMENT.
With proper maintenance, repairs and parts replacement, things can last indefinitely. As an example, our historic buildings in Washington DC--the capitol--started in 1792 and finished in the 1800's.
Gimme a break, anonymous.
Lynn, there wasn't much air conditioning 62 years ago, of course they went to the pool. The big thing today, is restaurants. People are nuts about restaurants. A horrible restaurant like Mulligans; they pack them in. Next is supermarkets. It's the new outing, shopping for food. There is so much stuff in the supermarket, it takes 40 minutes to buy 5 or 6 items. Many more people have pools in their HOA complex. That eliminates another group. The pool has a much narrower base to draw from than years ago.
thanks for your comments Lynn. I agree wholeheartedly. The pool should be fixed. I believe they inflated the problems as well as the price to fix them. Doug the chief lifeguard, made the presentation, wants a WAVE MACHINE, as well as the other lifeguards, OF COURSE,(free of use for them and their kids; otherwise its $200 bucks a week to take the kids to BOCA wave machine.)!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats why they want it shut down and totally new. He exagerated the problems since he became captain. Thats when all of a sudden all the problems started happening at a consistent rate until it had to close permanently. His presentation show pools/water parks that were in HIGH END cities, such as San Diego, San Francisco, Boca Raton. I could go on and on.
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