I would have to say that I was a little late joining the bandwagon of getting the pool back open. But as they say better late than never. I would first like to thank Mr. Spadaro and Mr. McGinnis for faithfully going to the meetings and being persistent for getting them to listen to the offer. They have acquired funding from private donors and been hard at work to keep this topic alive. In this process the Village of LeRoy has officially rescinded the vote of the pool to close. This leaves it not officially closed, but not open yet.
They have worked very closely with both boards of Village and Town of LeRoy. They started a Pool Committee. They have had the Health Dept. out there to do a walk through inspection that was a bearer of great news. The pool did not need many of those repairs to reopen. In fact most things were cosmetic. Nothing a little time and elbow grease from volunteers could not fix. Not saying other issues may not arise in the future.
The funding that was acquired from private donors can be put in an account by the Town as a separate line item to be used as needed. They also can add to that with any other donations that people collect or raise to be used for the upkeep and maintenance to help offset costs to the taxpayers.
The Town Council is working on an agreement with the Village to lease the pool for a 5 year term. The Town will run the Summer Pool program just as it always has in the past. Ideas for ways to work with other communities to bring kids in and different things were addressed in discussions. They were going to weigh all options as to how to get pool up and running for next Summer. They may have to start with just open pool hours and add the lessons back later on. They want to get it back at the least cost to taxpayers.
The Village had put an offer out to a non-existent group to purchase the pool for $1 and lease the land. They voted on an option to a group that did not exist. They offered to still contribute the $11,000 they always had.
As of last night at the Town meeting, the Town was going to work with Reed Whiting to tweak the details of an agreement that will make all happy.
Things are looking up for our Pool. The kids in this Town and Village will have a safe place to swim and we will not have to worry about drownings or injuries from the creek.
In a time when industry, jobs, and the future of LeRoy are all in question, there is vision. Vision of what we have here, what can be, and the first steps to revitalizing Le Roy to the great community we are. Here's to good things to come.
Hopefully our Town and Village complete this agreement with out anymore detours in the road. Next Village meeting is October 26th at 7pm. Please come in support of the pool. The kids of this community need it.
