Last summer, over 65 community surveyors volunteered their time to conduct questionnaires with over 600 people at Worcester’s parks, pools and beaches. There were some “big” requests that came out of that initiative. Over 93% of those that took the survey said they preferred having a City pool to having sprinklers built. It was an overwhelming response that guided, or maybe even screamed at, the Save Our Poolz Coalition to prioritize having all 9 of Worcester’s pools rebuilt as their number one campaign issue.

That wasn’t the Coalition’s only request though, as part of the Save Our Poolz ‘n Parks report, the Coalition and The Parks Alliance submitted a “Requests for Improvements and Repairs List”, asking that basic and necessary repairs and simple investments be made at each of the pools and beaches. The list wasn’t extravagant, things like “Repair restrooms; no doors on stalls” at Crompton Park, and the Tacoma Pools, trash cans at Bell Pond and replace missing grates on grills at Shore Park. The list was offered as some doable items that would allow the City to respond to residents’ concerns and create a foundation for the Coalition, Alliance and City to build trust en route to working together more. It was estimated that $50,000 was needed to address all the items, some, like bathroom doors, felt like absolute necessities.

As this year’s aquatics season launched, a few folks started checking back in on the improvements and repairs list. Sadly, disappointingly and just downright unbelievably the City hasn’t followed through with even a basic effort to respond to users requests. Volunteers who worked on the survey campaign expected the data compiled would lead to some action, but that hasn’t been the case.

City Councilors and Parks Department personnel visit Holmes Field pool. City machinery that was driven onto the pools skirt last spring, collapsed the cement forcing the pool to be closed.

Below are photos from June 30th at Tacoma Pool. It was the day before the season’s grand opening and you couldn’t find a single door on any of the stalls in either the boys or girls room! That’s right, no bathroom doors still!

Here are photos of Coes Pond where the lifeguards set up their chairs along the grass because the pond’s aquatic plants have taken over the beach. Just how hard is it to order a few dump trucks full of sand, or to use one of those rake thing-a-ma-jiggies?

Photos from Shore Park, where opening day began with an inoperable and leaky men’s room toilet flooding the bathroom, along with grill after grill after grill still without grates. Are we really even trying?

On the 30th, the Worcester City Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee (Councilors Germain-Chair, Rosen and Smith) were taken on a tour of the Holmes Field Pool and the Tacoma Pool. Public Works and Parks Commissioner Robert Moylan had organized the trip to show Councilors the condition of the pools.

I checked out the boys room at the same time as Councilor Joff Smith who represents Great Brook Valley. I couldn’t believe the condition of the boys room. [and then later the girls room] I prodded him, because I was incredulous and he wasn’t, “Don’t you think the stalls should have doors? How hard is it to get doors up for the first day of the season? Couldn’t we have at least put plywood up with a couple of hinges?”

He couldn’t say much in response to my near eruption, but did carry the thought back out to Rob Antonelli from the Parks Department. He asked, almost sheepishly, “Are there ummm, supposed to be doors in the bathroom?” Antonelli offered a response that started with, “It’s hard, they get vandalized every day.” and ended with “We’re just not able to keep up.” I waited for a follow-up from Smith. I waited for him to say, “Yeah, but how can you say that when the pools haven’t even opened this year yet”, or “What repairs have been made in preparation for tomorrow’s opening?” or at least “How soon will you be getting doors up so the kids here have a working bathroom?” I waited, but there wasn’t any follow through. Blaming the lack of doors on vandalism from mid-August of 2007 was an acceptable answer!

Is the City purposefully letting the pools deteriorate to justify their closure? Some feel that’s the case, and the failure to make basic repairs to treat pool and beach users with the same dignity afforded others seems to buttress that fear.

City Manager O’Brien is self-protective when he proclaims as part of the most recent aquatics report that, “we all bear the responsibility for the poor condition they [the pools] are now in”. Is that true? Is it really residents’ fault that the most basic of sanitary repairs don’t happen at Worcester’s pools and beaches?

Last summer came and went. Save Our Poolz and others challenged City Council Candidates to support the pools during September, October and pre-election November. As winter faded, the “everything is going to be alright” chorus began, “You know all the pools are going to be open this year. Right?” has been what everyone at City Hall has been parroting for a few weeks now. If you’re a member of the Save Our Poolz Coalition you’ve probably heard it 3, 4 or 5 times over the past two weeks.

But the facts remain, there are no bathroom doors, ZERO, at the Tacoma park pool, making it difficult to get all choo choo rah rah when the City Manager tacks up the following quote on the City’s “Pools and Beaches” web page,

“Opening the pools and beaches have always been a top priority for me and for the City Council, which is why we have worked together to identify the appropriate funding to open and properly staff these recreational services and facilities. Providing recreational opportunities for families and youth in a safe environment is extremely important to ensuring quality of life in our neighborhoods.”

City Manager Michael V. O’Brien

And if that’s not enough to try your reconciliation skills on, here’s none other than Commissioner Moylan in this week’s pools report,

“DPW&P, working with the Department of Public Health, will conduct a pre-season assessment of the 8 pools that remain in service. All necessary repairs will be made to pools and beach bathhouses to ensure that they are safe and clean.”

I guess that never happened, either that or Worcester’s Health Department doesn’t hold Commissioner Moylan to the same standards they hold every other proprietor to across the City.

More and more, “Let’s let them decay until they collapse”, feels like the real Master Plan. Facts speak louder than words, and the truth is, we’re not even trying to feign upkeep and safety anymore.

As one of my favorite Worcester bloggers might say, “Free beer to the first person that posts photos of the Greenhill Golf Club bathrooms.”