Letter: Pool is vital to North Bend community

To those of you that say the North Bend pool is not important to our community, you are wrong. The North Bend pool was dedicated on October 26th,1957 and has been the crown jewel of our area since that time. The pool has been home to swim meets since 1958 and has benefited many in our area. If you look at the picture on the front page of The World dated January 20th, you will notice all of the people in the stands at a swim meet. These people contribute to our economy and goodwill in our area. Chris Richmond was the pool manager until his retirement as well as the SCAT and high school swim coach. The pool was a success under Chris but now we are told that the pool is falling apart? Under the current management, there were video surveillance cameras installed so that the pool manager could watch the pool from home, is that how a pool is supposed to be managed?

The Mingus Pool in Coos Bay CANNOT accommodate all that need to use the pool in our area. The Mingus pool is under the umbrella of a non-profit and they have created a plan to keep their pool open with the city of Coos Bay. Their plan works and I would like to ask the mayor and city council members of North Bend, why they have refused to consider a non-profit taking over the pool. This option was suggested in the fall and yet, their response to the pool is to try and have a levy for the pool instead of modeling a plan like the one in Coos Bay. I have offered my time, along with others, to wash the walls of the pool, paint the walls, (the paint has already been purchased) and do whatever is necessary to reopen the pool but evidently the people in charge don't want our assitance, especially when it if free. Why would you expect the citizens to pay another tax towards the pool when there are better ways to solve this problem.