White Center pool users don't want to see it close
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The Salvation Army White Center Corps is planning to close its community center's so-called Red Shield Pool.
The closure would be a precursor to a $5.8 million capital campaign for renovation and expansion of the White Center Salvation Army Community Center.
According to the Salvation Army, the pool is a money pit no longer crucial to the community. But according to longtime swimmers and residents, the pool is important to White Center seniors and children, and contains too many memories to simply be closed down without a fight.
What best helps community?
A closer look whittles the quandary down to this point: Which services does a needy community need the most?
For years, the pool has been losing money and attendance, said Capt. Maynard Sargent, commanding officer of the White Center Salvation Army.
The pool lacks the diving boxes and slides that attract new swimmers. Swim programs have been cut back, and fledgling swim teams have dissolved. Besides that, newer, more luxurious pools have sprung up around Southwest Seattle to fill the need that would be created by the closure.
But the swimming pool holds a place in the hearts of the White Center community. Its 89-degree water makes it one of the warmest pools in Seattle, attracting post-surgery seniors, arthritis patients and the handicapped. At $1.25 a swim, it is also one of the cheapest pools around.
Maxine Carlson is an 81-year-old world-class backstroke swimmer who has used the pool since it was built in 1958. She refers to the women who have been swimming with her for more than 30 years as "the girls."
"I swim here because I love it," Carlson said. "It's the friendliest pool. When I go elsewhere, they just take my money and that's it."
The seniors padded around the pool in flowered bathing suits and caps as the afternoon sun slanted in through the windows. In the pool, they were stretching and floating; on the sideline benches, children squirmed in baggy swimsuits and waited for the public-swim period.
The decision to close the pool is not final and will be made by the Corps Advisory Board, a group of business and community leaders.
The news took White Center pool users by surprise. They want a chance to help the pool survive, or at least comment on its future. The Salvation Army is a private, nonprofit group, and its advisory-board meetings are not public.
"We're all willing to help," said resident Marilyn Poulin. "We'll put the ads in the paper, we'll paint the building, we'll canvass for money. Just tell us what we can do to keep our pool."
A "Save the Pool" group has formed, requesting that Sargent meet with it and gather more community input.
The past several years have not been kind to the Salvation Army pool and community center. Its decline is evident in the failing pool equipment, a crowded gym with a buckled linoleum floor, a dank cinder-block room used for after-school homework sessions, almost brightened by posters of kittens and puppies.
On Sundays, the congregation has outgrown the chapel, spilling out into nearby rooms. The senior center offers lunch at card tables and folding chairs. The food bank's shelves are plastic crates tied together; its walls are barely fighting back mold and water damage. White Center is the priority in the Salvation Army's capital campaign.
The community center hasn't undergone any real improvements in its 40-plus years. It is one of the more crowded, inefficient, leaking and worn-out community centers in the area, according to the Salvation Army. But it is also one of the most necessary.
White Center is a blue-collar neighborhood with a high level of poverty, dropouts and drug and gang activity, according to the Salvation Army. It serves about 1,600 people every week, many of them Vietnamese, Samoan, Cambodian and Hispanic immigrants. Signs on the front door greet people in three languages. Many parents work for minimum wage. Gym attendance is at capacity, with kids waiting for their turn on the ball courts almost every night.
Renovation will bring a bigger senior center, a bigger food bank, a bigger gymnasium, a real homework center, classrooms and a community meeting room.
"We try and be a good neighbor and help everybody we can," Sargent said. "And we can offer so much more with this new complex."
By closing the financially troubled pool and renovating the center, the Salvation Army says it can give the community more of what it needs.
Residents cite community needs as the reason the pool should stay open.
"Lord knows the kids need as much recreation as they can find," Poulin said. "There's no theaters around - there's nothing. There's talk of a skateboard park, but ... "
Users say they'd pay more
Some pool users say they would pay more to swim. They blame the Salvation Army for failing to publicize and adequately staff the pool, and for cutting swim programs, moves they say account for the dropping attendance.
"You can kill anything if you neglect it enough," Poulin said.
The Salvation Army says no programs would be cut during the renovation, which could be 12 to 18 months away. Sargent said the organization would find a way to shuttle seniors to other pools.
But longtime pool users say it wouldn't be enough.
"I don't think the White Center community knows what it's losing," Carlson said.