This report is courtesy of SwimSwam contributor Christina Wright.
Two Milwaukee County pools are in danger of being closed when the Milwaukee County budget is voted upon in November. Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele’s budget proposal calls for closing both the Pulaski Park pool and the Noyes Park pool, replacing them with a splash pad and a skate park, respectively. Abele is arguing that the two pools are run down and that they require “high priority” repairs that would cost the city $1.6 million. Yet, it would cost around $2.6 million to transform Pulaski into a playground with water toys and Noyes into a completely water-free concrete skate area. These two pools are vital to the neighborhoods in which they are located—Noyes serves Milwaukee’s northwest side and Pulaski is on the south side.
But Milwaukee swimmers are doing everything in their power to make sure that these pools are not shut down. On Thursday, October 17th a town hall-style meeting was held at the Pulaski Park pool. The meeting, led by County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, was attended by four Milwaukee County supervisors, the head of the Milwaukee County parks system, and more than 100 local residents who were protesting against the closures. Around 60 of these residents were given the opportunity to voice their opinions and to show support for the pools.
Schroeder South Swim Team founder and head coach Bob White was one of those 60 vocal residents who want to keep the pools out of the budget.
“The meeting was supposed to be about the budget in general, but everyone was there to talk about why the pools need to be kept open. There were many senior citizens who spoke about why they use the pools,” White says. “When I had my chance to speak, I said, ‘Splash pads and skate parks don’t save lives.’”
In 2012, White approached the established and successful Schroeder Swim Team about expanding the team to serve the city’s south side. (The Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center, the team’s headquarters, is located in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, about 20 minutes north of downtown Milwaukee.) Soon the Schroeder South team was up and running. And White saw that there was definitely a need for the team.
“We started with zero swimmers and now we have almost 100,” he says. “I think we can have 150 to 200 swimmers in another year. Our goal is to provide a competitive swim program to kids who have never been exposed to the sport before. We offer all levels of swimming, from novice to elite. We really want to bring water safety to these communities. We want to help people to become better swimmers, eliminate the potential for drowning, and introduce people to a lifelong sport.”
The Schroeder South Swim Team will still exist if the Pulaski pool closes (the team uses several pools in the area), but it will be far less convenient for many swimmers to make it to practice and lessons since Pulaski is in the center of the community. And since Milwaukee’s south side community is populated by Hispanic, Serbian, and Polish families, among others, the swim team is quite diverse. The Pulaski Park pool is also close to Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood, an area of the city that has never had a competitive swim team.
“Chris Abele is arguing that there are plenty of other pools in the area for people to use, but those are private pools or high school pools that either cost a lot of money to use or have no room in their schedule for more swimmers,” White says. “And Schroeder South is the only multi-level competitive swim team in the area offering training from novice through national levels.”
On November 11th all Milwaukee County board members will meet to discuss the budget. The Schroeder Swim Team has created a petition in an effort to save both the Pulaski and Noyes pools – http://www.wsacltd.org/NewsShow.jsp?&id=280760&team=wiwsac.