Fliers seek support for pool

Fliers will be delivered the first of next week.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HUBBARD -- The Hubbard Pool Committee will be soliciting support from area business people and professionals to get the community swimming pool reopened.
Bonnie Harrison, head of the 10-member committee, said she wants professionals, such as physicians, to know the pool could be helpful in rehabilitation programs.
The pool, which was operated by the Hubbard School District, closed in mid-December after voters rejected a 2.5-mill, five-year levy that would have generated $480,000 a year to support it.
The levy failed by a vote of 2,500 to 1,753 in November.
Roof needs repaired
Trumbull County's chief building official ordered the indoor pool closed until the roof is repaired. The cost of repairs is about $175,000.
School officials have said the district can't afford to maintain and operate the pool.
"I don't want to lose that facility," Harrison said Wednesday.
Some committee members will be going around to businesses next week passing out fliers about the school board's meeting at 7 p.m. April 26 at Reed Middle School.
The committee wants to draw attention to its cause at the meeting.
The flier will point out that the pool helps with arthritic conditions, childhood obesity, autism, body strengthening and can reduce swelling.
Property values
The flier also notes that property values in the community will decrease without the pool, Harrison added.
She said there is no way to determine the number of lives that have been saved because of the large number of people who learned to swim.
Harrison said she used the pool to exercise her arm after surgery, and her 85-year-old mother likes to swim.
Harrison said the pool issue has "gone on for so long. I think people have forgotten about it."
"We'll still try to save it," she added.
There have been suggestions of selling the pool or of the school district's joining with the city and township to maintain it.
Robert Toth, school board president, said that in either case repairs must first be made. The problem is how to pay for them.
yovich@vindy.com