The Harvey West Community Pool could reopen this summer if a trio of local activists, hoping to develop a partnership with the City of Santa Cruz, secures funding to reopen the public facility.
Kevin Moon, Steve Pleich and Jim Booth have proposed to resume operation of the swimming pool, which closed to the public in 2008 due to municipal budget cuts, and are now drafting an operating plan to be reviewed by the Santa Cruz City Council. According to Dannettee Shoemaker, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, the council will only approve the plan if long-term funding sources can be guaranteed.
“No city money is available,” said Shoemaker, who noted that $6 million in recent cuts have still left a budget shortfall for 2011. “The Parks and Recreation Department doesn’t have an extra nickel for this. I’ve told them that if they find community support and funding, they can probably reopen it.”
The plan is to form a nonprofit and raise $30,000 in donations with an eye toward opening the pool in June. Though Moon, Pleich and Booth would assume full control over operations if their plan takes shape, Harvey West Community Pool would remain a public resource.
“The benefit for the community of having this pool is huge,” said Booth, a local swimming instructor who currently uses Harvey West’s wading pool on a limited basis for children’s classes. “Swimming can lead to careers, college scholarships and just healthy lifestyle habits, and it makes sense to continue providing the service with a public-private partnership.”
Already, other public resources are operating under the direction of private groups—a sign of a city strapped for cash. When Harvey West Community Pool closed in 2008, so did the Museum of Natural History, the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum and the Beach Flats Community Center—but operations at these public venues were almost immediately resumed through support of private groups. Booth himself even conducted a rescue of San Lorenzo Valley High School’s pool when the facility was nearly closed in the late 1990s for budget reasons.
Booth estimates that Harvey West Community Pool will cost up to $10,000 to operate during the summer months and substantially more during the winter and spring, when heating expenses would mount. For now, the trio plans tentatively to open the pool for a trial run this summer, according to Pleich, a community activist who, along with Moon, ran for city council in November.
“But only if we’re sure we have the money to open the doors and keep them open,” Pleich said. “We don’t want to close in mid-summer. We don’t want to be in the business of letting people down.”
