Midpoints: Indoor pool an unnecessary extra

If there is one thing that the YMCA’s failed attempt to build a facility on University Avenue in Norwood has underscored, it is that the desire for an indoor pool is not universally supported in the community. For the past three years, the YMCA has failed in its attempts to gain the financial backing it needs from area businesses and residents to build a state-of-the-art recreational facility on land leased from the town.

The dream of those who have long campaigned for a local facility where the town’s swimming and ice hockey teams could practice their sports seems to have become the victim of inertia. Even the YMCA, which had the most to gain, has apparently abandoned the project.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm for the YMCA project, there are Norwood officials who support the suggestion that a pool be added to the $100 million-plus new high school proposal. Last week, the board of selectmen approved launching a study of the idea by a 3-2 vote.

“If we’re ever going to replace (the indoor pool that was lost when the town sold the old recreation facility to Norwood Hospital), now is the time - when the high school is redone,” Selectman Plasko said.

Both Plasko and Recreation Department Superintendent Gerry Miller agree that it doesn’t make sense to build a freestanding pool. And they are absolutely right about that.

Since the town’s indoor pool was sold decades ago, the personal fitness industry has grown tremendously. Fitness clubs abound, many with indoor pools. Norwood is home to at least two of these clubs and Dedham has another. Those who wish to take advantage of a private club’s facilities willingly pay the fee to do so. A health club membership may ultimately cost less than the amount it would cost to pay for the construction of a high school pool and then pay the fees to use it.

Additionally, a pool at the high school would not be readily available for public use. At Westwood High School, the public is allowed to use the pool for lap swimming from 5:30 to 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. each weekday, and from 8 to 9 p.m. two nights a week. An early morning lap swim is allowed on Saturday morning with consecutive mid-day lap swim and open swim sessions from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on weekend afternoons.

Residents pay a daily rate of $5 or can buy a single monthly membership for $15 or a family membership for $30 per month. This is, of course, in addition to the cost of building the Westwood facility, which all of the town’s taxpayers share.

Those on the Norwood Board of Selectmen who opposed the idea of a high school pool study made excellent points. Not only might building a high school pool involve a separate debt exclusion override to pay for an exorbitant extra that the taxpayers can ill afford, but a pool is not essential to the education of Norwood’s children.

Perhaps it is time to let go of the idea of replacing the pool the town lost to hospital expansion. Other options have emerged that take the place of an indoor municipal pool. The expense of building, operating, and maintaining a competitive size swimming and diving pool is beyond the means of the average Norwood taxpayer, most of whom would see little, if any, benefit from such a facility.

It’s time to admit that the idea of constructing a municipal indoor swimming pool in Norwood is beyond resuscitating and to put the funds set aside for that purpose years ago to better use in these hard economic times.

Norwood resident Candace Leary’s Midpoints column appears Mondays in the Transcript.