Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Holly Lofgren swims in the Lynbrook High School swimming pool while she awaits a city decision on funding a FUHSD facility.
It's sink or swim for the pool fundraisers
By Sam Scott
Holly Lofgren clearly states her reasons the city of Sunnyvale should team with the Fremont Union School District to build a pool the public can use.
"We should be able to swim in our own city," she says. Lofgren thinks swimmers are a neglected community in the city. Sunnyvale's only pool at Washington Park is open only six months of the year, is shaped poorly for lap swimmers and has an end so shallow, swimmers' hands drag the bottom. Lofgren says she travels to San Jose to swim.
Chris Campbell, also a Sunnyvale swimmer, says this area is "ground zero" for adult swimmers. He goes to Mountain View to swim in facilities that he says are overcrowded.
The solution, they say, is to build a pool at Fremont High School. According to current plans, by June 2002 the school will have a new pool. High school district officials say they are willing to make it an Olympic-sized pool with separate public showers and changing room, but only if the city agrees to share capital and operating costs. The plan depends on a City Council vote in May.
Under the terms of the proposal, city residents would have daily access to 23 swimming lanes and diving facilities. City staffers estimate the facility would generate 50,000 to 140,000 hours of public usage. Proponents of the plan say it would free up Washington Pool for use by groups like elderly water exercisers.
"From a community-benefit stand point, it's a no-brainer," says Robert Walker, the city's Parks and Recreation director.
It's the financial side of the equation that is less inviting to the city.
Sunnyvale's capital cost for the new facility is roughly estimated at $1.4 million, its yearly usage costs at $135,000, Walker says.
"It's a good bargain, it's on the shelf, it's not likely to be stocked again," Walker says. "I don't know if we have enough to afford it."
Lofgren and the Friends of the Fremont Pool, a community group of supporters, have been lobbying furiously to get the city to agree to the partnership. To convince councilmembers still dubious of the project's expense, FFP last year agreed to raise $1 million to allay operating expenses.
Since then, the group has been on a fundraising fling, appearing at council meetings, commission hearings, PTA meetings, corporate boards, charitable foundations, on public-access TV shows, school picnics, anywhere likely to help their cause.
"If they can't do it [raise the money]," Walker says. "I don't know who can. They're working real hard."
With only a month to go, the group remains more than $975,000 short of its goal. But Lofgren, as persistent as a Navy SEAL, remains confident and active. This is the last best chance for a new pool, she says.
"It is unlikely this opportunity will be recovered again," she says. "I don't see a site big enough for a large pool or an opportunity to pay for it alone. If they can't pay for with a partner, how will they ever be able to do it alone?"
Friends of the Fremont Pool can be reached at 408.245.2875 or via email at FremontPool@aol.com.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
