South Milwaukee’s Grobschmidt Pool is one of four Milwaukee County pools the new parks director is eyeing for closure in 2014, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Here is the story. From it …
Indoor pools at Noyes and Pulaski parks and outdoor pools at Jackson and Grobschmidt parks all have relatively high costs and low attendance, Dargle said.
A proposed pool closing plan would include reinvestment of savings for other amenities at those parks, Dargle said in an interview and comments before the County Board’s parks committee Tuesday.
He said costs greatly exceeded revenue at Noyes and Pulaski pools each year, in response to a question by Supervisor Khalif Rainey on whether Abele would propose their closure.
“We are losing some money at those” pools, Dargle said. “They are old pools.”
Noyes Pool is at 8235 W. Good Hope Road and Pulaski is at 2701 S. 16th St.
The two pools need a combined $4.2 million in repairs, the report said. That includes nearly $1 million in electrical work and more than $700,000 for heating and cooling system upgrades.
In the interview, Dargle added Jackson and Grobschmidt to the potential closure list. The Jackson Park pool is at 3500 W. Forest Home Ave. Grobschmidt pool is at 2600 16th Ave. in South Milwaukee.
An Abele spokesman said full details of his 2014 budget won’t be released until next week. Any potential changes with pools Abele may propose would be better described as offering supervisors “options to open amenities that get more use by the public” and cost less, said spokesman Brendan Conway.
This is really disappointing news and thankfully far from the final word. As this debate continues, please make your voice heard … and let’s work to save this community amenity.
As County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimtrijevic put it: “I don’t understand this philosophy of eliminating public amenities.”
Instead, let’s invest in them to make them viable. What a concept.
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