Willow Glen Resident

News

Renovations to Beibrach pool are at least three years away

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Although the future of San Jose's pools is still unclear, one thing certain after a community meeting in Greater Gardner is the importance of Biebrach pool.

The San Jose Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services appeared Jan. 24 for a community forum at Gardner Community Center. The purpose was to discuss new ideas for San Jose's struggling public pools system, in particular the neighborhood's Biebrach pool.

"Of the three closed pools, Biebrach is our highest priority," said Cynthia Bojorquez, deputy director of the parks department.

The closed facility, with its six-lane, 25-yard pool, is the largest of all the recreational swimming facilities. The city wants to capitalize on that. Officials find the idea attractive because Beibrach has the largest service area, including Washington, Willow Glen, Palm Haven, North Willow Glen, Gardner, Tamien and Midtown.

"It has the most potential," Bojorquez said.

Although the pools were closed in 2006, Bojorquez said each neighborhood still received its portion of the annual $81,000 parks and recreation budget that would have applied toward the pool in that area. Some areas were able to use the pool at a neighboring school site. The downtown community used Peter Burnett Academy's pool, but this option was not viable for Biebrach because a school pool is not close enough to the community. Instead, Bojorquez and the Gardner Advisory Council agreed to use the money to offer more summer day camps to neighborhood youth. This same offer will apply this year as well, she said.

Bojorquez presented residents from the affected neighborhoods with six options for the pools, from the repair and enhancement of the existing three pools still open to customizing and adding facilities according to the needs of each community. These alternatives range in cost from $1.4 million to $39 million and include proposals for a water-spray park with no pool to an indoor competitive venue.

Neighbors at the meeting were clear about what they wanted.

"We want indoor and outdoor, heated water, the whole enchilada," said Tamien Neighborhood Association vice president Mary Anna Guzman. "We need something that will service the seniors as well as the youngsters."

Guzman also noted the new towers at Alma and Lick avenues will bring more people into the area and they will need a community pool.

"We should maximize our pool," she said. "The pool is right off the light rail. Where else will they go?"

A neighborhood teen also said that the pool needed to have more services.

"We need the pool to be larger," he said. "We don't need a slide or any other fun features. We just need a larger pool with different levels of water. We could save money by not adding these fun things."

In the end, the neighborhood's choice was obvious.

"It isn't a question of whether we want a pool or not," said Gardner resident Robert Jones.

The neighborhood needs its pool, Jones said.

The city's six pools were built between the 1930s and 1970s, and are of standard rectangular form. In 2005, the San Jose City Council voted to close four of them, including Biebrach Pool, due to safety and health code violations and inadequate revenue streams.

The fourth, Mayfair, was approved for renovations in August 2006.

Bojorquez said a primary cause of the pools' deterioration has been a lack of maintenance, and the citywide master plan is the first step in ensuring this does not happen again.

The process for the citywide master plan was broken into three phases. The first was data collection, in which consultant Scott Hunsaker's firm, Counsilman-Hunsaker, received a $250,000 city contract to assess residents' aquatic needs. This phase was completed in October 2006. The second phase is taking data collected in the first phase to draw up a conceptual master plan.

The third phase consists of the final report and will be presented to the city council in June.

"Best-case scenario, we are looking at 2010 for the reopening of the pools," Bojorquez said. "This is assuming we have the money, there aren't any neighborhood complaints and no major environmental issues."

The findings from the community meeting will be presented to San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Feb. 7 at 5 p.m. in San Jose City Hall, 200 E. Santa Clara St. City Council members will be given the information on Feb. 27 at 6 p.m.

For information, contact the city parks department at 408.535.3570 or visit www.sanjoseca.gov/prns.