Yearly Maintenance or Permanent Closure?
YONKERS, NY, July 28, 2010 -- The Mark Twain School Pool is a microcosm ofYonkers. The Mark Twain School Pool serves the entire community within the 4th Yonkers City Council District, from the very young to the most mature. This is accomplished by the camaraderie nurtured between new swimmers and the swimmers who exercise to relieve the debilitating pains of arthritis. The Mark Twain School Pool is a microcosm of Yonkers society serving all within its pool from morning until late at night. Acid-tongued bloggers have learned that the pool is said to be slated to be drained this week. Short notice indeed to orders from up high. Is this the yearly maintenance protocol adhered to since the pool opened or is the Yonkers Board of Education shutting the facility permanently. Conjecture seems to point to the latter. Chatter is strong and loud. Some within City Hall, who have shared their perspective under the safety of anonymity advise that they are only aware of the maintenance routine closure. Permanent closure is something they have not been advised.
The financial stress under which Yonkers maintains its prides continues to be a challenge to Yonkersites, as it is similarly a challenge to every community in the nation. Yet since all the swimming programs are paid for by the community members who attend the pool what is the rationale behind this deleterious move?. A large portion of the community in the area use the facility frequently. The city even has the records to prove it. What is unclear is why a self paid program is being shut down? The program even pays for the employees that work about the pool.
Draining the Mark Twain School Pool of its sustaining liquid is incongruous by all measure. The order to drain the pool has been given. The order to refill the pool has been omitted. A normal scenario would have an order to drain the pool followed by an immediate refilling of the pool thereafter. Such is the protocol.
Crime:
With budget cuts across the board, including the police department, an increase in crime is of the utmost concern. The Mark Twain School’s facility is located in a relatively low crime area. The pool is in use until 9:45 p.m., which means people are exiting the building at late hours. With increased pedestrian traffic, the mere presence of a mass of people assuages crime. With the budget of the Yonkers Police Department cuts, it makes sense to use all means necessary in order to mitigate any potential rise in crime
Community
The pool is a focal point of a community that is comprised of many small families. On a Friday night, one can find a multitude of family and friends in the immediate community using the pool. If this program, which is paid for by all who attend is cut, the only alternative is a facility in a crime-infested area of Yonkers. This does not benefit the community.
Budgetary Issue
Per Mayor Amicone’s State of the City address; “We only have so much money coming in to pay for services. If that money starts to go down like it has, significantly, then we have to cut services”. Each visitor pays for his or her use of the Mark Twain Pool. It is a self-funding program.
Mayor Amicone’s also said, “And cutting services means cutting our workforce”. The community members who pay for the use of the pool in turn employ upwards of 20 people. The recession has challenged many, including Yonkers’ youth. The unemployment rate among young people is 50% . This facility employs young people as lifeguards, whose salaries are paid for and by the community members who use the facility.
Those swimmers who attend the Mark Twain Pool School do not comprehend the use of a financial rationale for closing the pool since it is not at all pertinent in this instance. Even if there was a financial need, many in the community have suggested they would, some with greater difficulty than others, consider increasing fees to keep the pool open and fully operational. The community has not been officially advised or consulted.
Yonkers Masters website, is home to the USMS / Metropolitan lower Westchester adult swim team who practice at the Mark Twain Pool Complex in Yonkers. The team is comprised of fitness swimmers, triathletes and serious competitors. The team ages range from early 20's to mid 70's. Yonkers Masters has been around since 2001. They pay a monthly fee to attend the Mark Twain School Pool.
Brigitte Puma, aide to Yonkers City Councilman Dennis Shepherd (4th District) inaccessible over his three-week vacation, was unaware of what Yonkers Tribune advised her as fact, that is, the pending closure of the Mark Twain School Pool. Ms Puma did say, should this report be correct, “We have not been advised by the Yonkers Board of Education of such plans, and we do not have any sway as to how they conduct their business.”
The Yonkers Tribune has no difficulty in conjecturing that Councilman Shepherd, were he aware of this situation, would be on it like white on rice. Conveniently for the Yonkers Board of Education, he is out of the country.
The issue now revolves about whom to believe. Is this strictly a maintenence issue or is the maintenance protocol a smoke-screen for permanent closure? Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone’s Communication Director David Simpson has not returned our telephone inquiry. Yonkers Tribune is under the belief that the closure of the Mark Twain School Pool is permanent. The order to drain the pool has been made; the order to refill has been omitted.
