Tribune Admirably Lays out Pool Issues

Tribune reporter Richard Ecke has a series of stories in today's paper, admirably laying out many of the issues facing our city's acquatic facilities. He even found the time to quote me for one of the stories. I leave you to decide whether or not those quotes improve or denigrate the quality of the reporting.

• City Pools in Hot Water
  
• Spraygrounds Make Waves in Montana
  
• Natatorium Making a Comeback
  
• Flow Rider a Burden on Budget (Yours Truly quoted)
  

I will have more to say about the pools later. However, I suggest that we have some hard decisions to make about both the nature, quality and quantity of the facilities our community is to provide for itself. I support keeping the neighborhood pools open, but I also do not think that the city should perform non-essential services in anything less than a break-even position. I suggest that pools are non-essential services.

In the 1960s, when Anaconda was going strong, we built four city-owned acquatics facilities. In the intervening decades, we have lost both population and jobs. It makes sense to debate what quantity of facilities are appropriate for our our size and ability to afford.