The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Rutherford Pool in crisis
By Kathleen Conat, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: January 31, 2008
The future of Rutherford Pool is in jeopardy and meetings have been scheduled to discuss its fate, according to Cathy Thorburn, president of Friends of Rutherford Pool.
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Meetings are scheduled for 3 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Haab Building on North Huron Street; and 7 p.m. Feb. 5 at the Senior Center on Congress Street to discuss future options.
"This will be the last year the Friends will be operating the pool as it is now," said Thorburn, "assuming we can limp it along one more year. We have been saying for many years that the end may be near. We believe it has now come."
According to Eric Rudolph, a member of the Friends organization, the pool's liner is coming up on its 13th year, when its life expectancy was only for 10. The liner is leaking, as are the gutters and skimmers that return water to the filters. The leaking is resulting in astronomically higher water bills and is environmentally unsound.
"When the liner was replaced 13 years ago, none of the mechanics were replaced," Rudolph explained. "At that time, we thought there would be a separate toddlers pool. Instead, they lifted one end of the pool and filled in the depression to make it shallower."
The liner is exposed to the elements year-round. A cover for the pool would have cost as much as replacing the liner. Now, due to the leaking, the ground is spongy under the shallow section of the pool.
A company was contacted to inspect the pool and found the gutters and skimmers in great need of replacement, although they can be repaired for this coming year. Later in this spring, the company will return to inspect the main drains of the pool.
"If the drains are gone, we will not be able to open the pool," Rudolph said. "The inspectors were surprised the pool was even running at all."
The inspection will require digging up the concrete in a three-foot radius around the pool. If patching is feasible, it will be done and the pool will be open this summer.
Regardless, Thorburn and Rudolph concur that the coming summer is the last one possible for the pool as it now is. Despite fund-raising efforts, the group will have run out of money.
"The repairs will likely use up our 'rainy day' reserves," Thorburn said. "We will need to start a capital campaign. Most of the Friends committee readily admit that we know pool programming, but are not 'money' people. We need help."
The scheduled meetings are for the purpose of discussing longterm options. A new pool would cost approximately $750,000, according to Rudolph.
"Clearly," he added, "the city does not have the money for that. We're going to have to raise those funds if we want the pool to remain open."
In 2007, the city received a $100,000 grant for repairing the pool house, a structure that has also seen better days. On-demand heaters were installed for the showers and new shower towers were also put in. New ceiling lights were installed, as well.
The Friends protested these repairs on the grounds that they were useless if the pool could not remain open. They expressed concern that the city would have to repay the grant money to the county because it came with the qualifier that the facility must remain open for another to years.
"We knew then that we couldn't keep the pool open that long as the situation is now," Rudolph said. "We asked them to use the money on the pool, but they said it was earmarked for the pool house. They said, 'This is what you told us to do.'
"That is what we asked for - three years before," Rudolph said."But, since that time we've made our own repairs so the work wasn't needed. The money would have been better spent on the pool itself."
Now the the Friends face an uncertain future.
"We need people who are committed to keeping swimming alive and well and the Ypsilanti area," Thorburn said.
Kathleen Conat is a longtime Ypsilanti resident and freelance writer for The Courier. She can be reached through editor@ypsilanticourier.com.
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