Celina (Ohio) Pool Closing? Priorities Gone Awry?

Awoke this morning to another inch of snow, which starting last night made the roads back from Lima Perry High School pretty treacherous. I counted 3 vehicles in the ditch along the route from Wapak to Celina...a pick up and and car had tangled in one incident, and another car had slid off the road near St. Marys. With my neck and upper back still bothering me, I have decided to wait until later to see if the light snow melts on its own, or will I have to get the shovel out and clear the steps and sidewalk?

One thing I have to do is dig out the 1977 Buick which is still buried for the most part in my driveway....my baseball umpire gear is stored in the back seat, and I will need it for this Saturday's Umpire Clinic in Dayton....got to get the gear out and make sure it's all in working order before Garry and I head down early Saturday for that all day session with MLB Umpire Tim Timmons, and some of the guys helping out from the Minor Baseball Leagues. The reason I store it in the Buick is simple....it's dry inside, and pretty air tight, and covered with a tarp to keep the interior in good condition until such a time I get the Buick back to being road ready. At least that's my excuse....

One more Basketball game to officiate...Friday night, Dan the Man and I will head to St. Marys for the final WBL league contest of the year....then I will pack away the roundball whistle, shoes, and clothes until next November. Baseball coming up, Football arrives in August.

Celina's Screwed up Priorities____

On occasion I've been known to go off on local politics. Not often, but at these times, the so-called leaders really do piss me off. This issue is one of those.....

The local daily rag blared out the headlines on this past Tuesday "Celina pool may close". A decade or so ago, the City of Celina(Ohio) closed it's old pool that was in need of repairs, and decided to build a brand new one at the same site. The new pool opened the next year, and offers this town of 11.000 kids, adults, and parents a clean and safe atmosphere, for summer activities. The pool is located at the County Fairgrounds, just a block away from our house. Now my kids are adults and have not used the pool in many a year, so I don't actually have a dog in this fight, except that I pay taxes and live in this community, and I don't like what is going on...not one bit, especially on this issue.

I've been asked on more than one occasion to run for council or even Mayor...."No way in Hell" is usually my response. Too many skeletons in my closet, I've been know to sit on my front porch and smoke a cigar, drink a beer, etc in the summer....and that's just a start. I also worked in local government for 20 years, and I know the pitfalls and pain in the ass of that. I'm not running for anything, except the fridge on a hot summer weekend afternoon for a cold beer.

Anyway The Daily Standard's lead story Tuesday was about the possible closing of the City Pool.

http://www.dailystandard.com/archive/stories.php?view_date=2010-02-23

(Story only available in printed edition)

Seems the city handouts for Parks and Recreation is a little "strapped" for funds. The Bryson Trust was left to the city many years ago for the purpose of keeping the Parks and Recreation areas of the City of Celina in good financial shape. It seems those running the show have decided that the pool(named of course "The Bryson Pool") is such a drain that it should be closed, rather than supported.

$50,000 in RED is the complaint. We can't have that, can we? Hell no, we cannot afford to lose that money, not when the city is busy using the very same funds to pave a parking lot at the "Hot Water Hole", a drive way for the seldom used Pullman Bay Park, and an extra entrance for the ball diamond area of Eastview Park. $150,000 dollars for 3 areas, that if visitors were counted don't have have the numbers all year that the pool does in a single month.

Just who the Hell is running this side show? I got several acquaintances on City Council, and my complaint is certainly nothing personal, because I don't want their job...but I do wonder who is selling them this bill of goods that our 13,000 acre swamp called Grand Lake St. Marys, is the City of Celina's problem?

Grand Lake may be the focal point of the area, but it seems to me, Celina is spending way too much effort and money on convincing folks that the Lake can be a clean, clear, body of water. I won't go into the reasons it will never be anything more than good boating and party lake, that has mud at the bottom of 6 or 7 feet of green or gray water(depending on the season). But real estate agents, developers, and property owners around the lake have convinced some that Grand Lake can be a pristine, high taxed haven for towering Condos, and that Grand Lake will bring visitors from around the Midwest to Celina, and the City should be at the forefront of expending cash and resources for that purpose.....Good luck with that.

Work with the State of Ohio on improving the Lake(Hell, I'm a member of the Lake Improvement Association), but stop raiding the damn funds from the Parks and Recreation area to build parking lots, and driveways, while threatening to close the pool...and while you are at it, quit buying junk buildings, while refusing to remove snow and patch the damn city streets and alleys(a different discussion, different funding, for a different day).

Bottom Line=Keep the Damn Swimming Pool Open and stop paving seldom used areas of the "Parks" like the stupid Hot Water Hole Parking Lot!

back later>>>>

Photos-Will the Bryson Pool open this Summer or will it remain closed in July like it is in February? The former Hot Water Hole...took this picture from the Parking Lot which $50,000 will be spent to repave...come June the amount of parking will probably equal what it was this morning...1 car, which was me, stopping to take the photo. And the Pullman Bay park and fish park? What Fish? Grand Lake's fish population is long gone, and it appears the Byrson Pool isn't far behind/