There has been a lot of poppycock being spread around about the new outdoor pool at Drake Springs. Many have been complaining that the pool is too small for swimming, I agree. But as someone who has been following this very closely I can tell you this, the city planned the pool, Stehly did not. The only thing her ballot initiative did was setup the funding for the outdoor pool (The city COULD spend UP TO $4.7 million). This letter to the editor goes into some details about it;
Please know that many of us did all that was possible when this facility was planned to plead the case for a design that would allow exercise so vital to the health of the community as it fights the ills that accompany sedentary life.
I remember attending one of the community meetings where designers were present sketching out preliminary designs. I also remember the pool design being a lot larger. (I should have taken pictures).
So what happened? There are two theories floating around out there;
1) Sour grapes on behalf of the indoor pool advocates convinced the parks board to scale back the project. I am not sure if the sour grapes existed, but it is no doubt the project was scaled back.
2) Since the petition said that the city could spend UP TO $4.7 million, it did not specify that they could spend less then that. Which is what people think happened. In fact a city councilor mentioned that he thinks some of the pool budget was thrown at Harmadon Park and that is why the pool had to be scaled back. These are rumors of course, because getting this information out of the budget office is next to impossible. It is estimated that about only $3.2 million was spent on Drake Springs.
The point is this, stop blaming Stehly for the bad design.
Well, at least we have options of other pools to go to. I also believe the pool is way too small for the things it offers and the size takes away from the experience.