THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 7, 1995 TAG: 9508070041
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SHAWN M. TERRY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
On Thursday afternoon, school buses from nearby recreational facilities zoomed in and out of the Elm Street pool parking lot. Hordes of children, some clad in neon-colored swimming suits or cutoff blue jeans, fidgeted 20 minutes in 90-plus-degree heat before being allowed to enter the only public pool open in the city.
``We have to wait to get in?'' 15-year-old Tonya L. Watkins asked a woman standing at the entrance of the pool collecting money.
Watkins, her 12-year-old sister, Sonya, and their two cousins, Nona, 13, and Kareemah Z. Horton, 12, stood in line hoping for a chance to frolic in the pool.
``If the pool is crowded, we aren't going to let them swim,'' replied Angela Jones, playground leader at the pool. ``It's been like this all summer, and I don't want to think about Labor Day weekend.''
Although there are other privately owned pools throughout Portsmouth, the Elm Street Neighborhood Facility pool is the only reprieve from the heat for many inner-city children.
Like Watkins and her relatives, who finally got to swim after walking 45 minutes from Southside, many children have no choice but to cope with the overcrowding and long lines.
It costs the city roughly $6,477 to pay three bus drivers to transport an average of 1,407 children a week from various recreation facilities to the Elm Street pool.
The Cavalier Manor pool, which the city had operated for 30 years, closed two years ago. Before that pool closed, the city spent $32,000 to repair its filter system.
Lydia Patton, director of Leisure Services said that even after the repairs, jagged edges at the bottom of the pool continued to cut swimmers' feet.
Patton recommended that the city not spend more money on the facility.
``We would come out better constructing a new pool,'' she said. ``We are evaluating both of the pools this year. We will look at capital improvements for next year to put forward the construction of a new pool.''
Last year, the city's budget committee omitted a proposal that would have spent $40,000 to raise drain pipes, resurface and fill in the deep end of the Cavalier Manor pool, said Michael Stephens, a city spokesman.
The move was part of a 6 percent budget cut, he said.
Last month, the city spent $35,000 to resurface, replaster and install five racing lanes to the Elm Street pool.
Carlton M. Carrington, president of the United Civic League of Cavalier Manor said busing the children from the Cavalier Manor recreation center across town to the Elm Street pool is nonsense. His community group wants wants its old pool repaired or a new one built.
``Why ship the kids over there when there is a pool in their own back yard?'' Carrington said. by CNB