Trending
Altoona residents who value the existence of Prospect Pool have cause for cautious optimism about the pool's future.
On Sept. 26, the city council provided a tentative endorsement to keeping the pool in operation next summer if costs are not prohibitive.
However, the pool was not without many problems during the summer, and council members -- commendably -- were not reluctant to let their feelings be known about what transpired.
The only way to resolve and move beyond the pool's problems is to continue to discuss them openly, regardless of who would prefer less visible judgment.
The city still has a "working window" at least five months long to tackle the pool's issues one-by-one, including identifying individual costs along the way.
The council must not put the pool's future on the proverbial shelf anytime in the coming months. Doing that would run the risk of forgetting to resume important considerations necessary for the coming summer.
Last-minute haste cannot be construed as being in the pool's best interests. The Sept. 26 discussion was the right springboard to a successful process that, in the end, could provide the best opportunity to enhance the pool as the vibrant recreational asset that it consistently deserves to be.
In the meantime, community residents must continue to be reminded that they will have some share in the responsibility of keeping the pool open and alive.
That responsibility will center on ensuring that they and their family members and friends do not engage in the kind of bad behavior that helped thrust the pool's future into some degree of uncertainty in July.
Regarding the behavior issue and more, it was Councilman Ron Beatty, who at the Sept. 26 meeting, demonstrated no shyness about the need to delve into the depths of the pool's problems.
He expressed the opinion, without hesitation, that the Central Blair Recreation and Park Commission failed to put forth good-faith effort in the pool's operation during the just-concluded summer, alleging they (commission) "sabotaged the pool."
That allegation deserves a close look. The Mirror's Sept. 27 article about the meeting the day before reported Beatty's criticisms this way:
"The commission didn't take advantage of an offer from the Altoona Area School District to provide armed security until after instances of bad behavior in July, didn't market the facility like it should have, kept it open only four days a week for six hours a day, didn't sell season passes and let the pool cleaning equipment lie inoperable for a year."
If Beatty's allegations are on target, the commission needs to prepare an honest report card of all aspects of its pool supervision during 2022.
Meanwhile, a Beatty comment made during the Sept. 26 session -- that a plan was being weighed to relieve the commission of the responsibility of managing the pool, instead putting it under control of a management firm -- must be shared further with city taxpayers.
"If we want it to be successful, we need to make an effort," Beatty said, while restating that the pool needs to be marketed enthusiastically, needs to be secure and kept clean, needs to have the best possible operating hours, needs to have a well-stocked concession stand and needs to be available for after-hours parties.
Perhaps Bedford area officials, who are considering establishing a community pool along with, perhaps, a community center, will be watching pool developments here.