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- “Connecting the Dots” Community meeting on April 24th was a very large assembly of people; many including many, many neighbors, South High School student swimmers and coaches, University of Minnesota coaches (of Olympic swimming winners,), Augsburg Coaches, Mpls. Swim Board members, Park Commissioners, planners, many who used to swim at the pool or belonged to swimming clubs, and many more. Some came to voice their support. Others came to learn more and maybe help to make decisions. It was a great night of “dots-being- connected” by seeing drawings, hearing explanations and having questions and answered. Photos by Bob Albee
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- Hannah Leider, the Executive Director of Mpls. Swims and one of the Eleven Winners of the KARE Eleven TV “Eleven Who Care Award 2013” (for her work on restoring the Pool and initiating Mpls. Swims to operate the Pool) led the evening of presenters following a Welcome and Introduction by Bob Albee, President of Ventura Village Neighborhood.
By Harvey Winje
40 years ago a building was added to the Wendell Phillips Junior High School with a pool and a gym. The school itself was demolished 12 years later. The pool and gym building was kept, restored with its own furnace and remained used until 2008 when renovations were necessary. Desires to abandon the pool were thwarted and from that challenge grew a unique partnership between individuals, organizations, and the owner of the facility, the Mpls. Park Board.
Today the entire building is remodeled except the pool. Enough money has been raised to restore the pool to new requirements and normal maintenance.
There are hopes to expand the size and number of pools to enable more use and supportive income.
There are many facets to consider with reopening the pool at any size. The more all of the information can be shown “the light of day” the better because then each facet may be scrutinized and receive the benefit of wider spread thinking and resources. With so many parts to consider it is crucial that there be times to consider all of the parts and see how they relate to one another. It is like making a drawing by just outline shapes with dots and then drawing a line so all of the dots connect and the shapes become clearly obvious. Just such a meeting happened again on April 24th called “Connecting the Dots” community meeting. It extended the information and knowledge of the proposals to more people. It brought together some who have worked on it for a long time with others who were new. It was a tremendous success. There is considerable momentum and enthusiastic support for a solid plan and optimism that the trials and tribulations over 40 years will once again lead to success of a fine community facility.
The adjacent photo is of a groundbreaking for a previous evolution of the pool in March 1988. Some of these people are still involved. Some preceded them and many have followed. All together it has been an amazing journey.
As you read this another chapter of this saga is being enacted and written. You may become a part of the story if you already haven”'t. Come on along.
