Town looks to cut cost on pool

It was an unorthodox swim practice for the Plains piranhas on Tuesday night. Instead of practicing their backstroke in the pool all the swimmers on the team from the oldest to those as young as five years old, walked to Plains town hall where they sat in on the town council meeting.

It was an unorthodox swim practice for the Plains piranhas on Tuesday night. Instead of practicing their backstroke in the pool all the swimmers on the team from the oldest to those as young as five years old, walked to Plains town hall where they sat in on the town council meeting.

They were there to show their support for the pool and if need be do their best to convince the town to keep it open.

After sealing repairs to the pool were stalled, because of a rainy June, the Plains pool was forced to open much later than usual. This was coupled with talk about the economic hardship, the pool costs to the town and the upgrades it needs that the town can't afford with rumors beginning to fly about potentially closing the pool down for good.

"We have heard both sides: that we were [closing the pool] and that we weren't [closing the pool], and we wanted to get the facts," explains Swim Team President, Nawatha Campbell.

Despite their concerns, the Plains team had good news on Tuesday as they got what they wanted, which was a guarantee from Mayor Michael Brinson that the town was not looking to close the pool.

"I don't want to be the person who says the pool has to close," said Mayor Brinson emphatically. "I'm not looking to close it, I'm looking for other money to support it."

The town regularly runs an annual deficit of approximately $30,000 to keep the pool open.

A potential idea that the mayor threw out to council members was revisiting the idea to put a $50,000 mill levy on the ballot for the Country Recreation District for use of the pool.

"We would like to see a levy that would subsidize the money we're spending," said Mayor Brinson. "It's a continuous drain on the town's money."

Along with the idea of a mill levy on the next ballot, Sam Deschamps, a father of a child on the swim team, revisted his idea to add solar water heating panels to the pool.

And although Deschamps estimates that the panels would cost between $5,000-$10,000 Mayor Brinson says they have to be careful that they could add the solar panels without it qualifying as a retrofit.

Any retrofit on the pool would force them to upgrade the entire pool, an endeavor that would skyrocket the cost.

However, Deschamps is already eyeing a new pool and is trying to spur on the entire town to begin fundraising either by searching out grants or by grassroot fundraising.

"If we start now it's going to take a couple years to raise the money," says Deschamps.

He says it took Colombia Falls four years to raise enough money to build their new pool.

And although they will need to mostly rely on grants for money, the Plains swim team wants everyone to know that they are ready to do everything possible to keep their pool afloat and to ultimately build a new one.

"We have 26 swimmers and it means a lot to them," says Campbell. "If there is something we can do we will step up to the plate."