Sink or Swim

The American Legion Memorial Pool in Patton Park is a valuable community asset. It was built in the ‘60s and since then Hamilton and Wenham population has grown over 50%, more than 2,000 people in each town. At the same time that our population increased so have our longevity and activities, resulting in exponential growth in our recreation programs. In addition to the innumerable volunteers and donations, we have a professional Joint Recreation Department to manage the thousands of scheduled activities that use our valuable community assets.

Our town has supported the pool with herculean maintenance but pools last roughly 30 years and ours has reached the end of its fine, fine life. On November 4th, at our Town Meeting, Hamilton voters will decide to either build a new pool or close it. The fabulous new Patton Park Playground has added considerably to the use of the Park and a new pool should do the same, let alone the overall value of the Town. The Pool Committee found that 90% of the community survey respondents said they would use the current pool if it was improved. And, you’ll meet our consultant at Town Meeting, who builds pools all around the US, who said that similar projects have increased usage several times.

So what are our options: a new pool and new bath house with gradual entry area that could attract more seniors and young children with programming for multiple uses at the same time like lessons, water aerobics and lap swimming. Refurbishing the pool isn’t an option, although it’s been evaluated many, many times over the years.  Our most recent professional analysis, funded through our Community Preservation Act, confirms this conclusion once again.  Our last century’s infrastructure (decking, bath house, fencing, pumps, piping, septic, parking) don’t meet the requirements that apply with any new project, and would have to be replaced – including the pool. The Community Preservation funding we have in place, 27% funded by the State, could pay for the pool with no impact to our taxes. The price tag is large, around $2.5 million, is limited by your vote at Town Meeting and is usually lower after bidding and value engineering are completed. If we close the pool, the estimated $200,000 costs to do so would be borne by the taxpayers because those costs cannot be funded by the Community Preservation Act.

We asked Wenham to participate in funding a new pool and while there is some support, they prioritize affordable housing goals and acquiring more open space (i.e., 61A properties), so they decided not to fund their share at this time. If we vote to build a new pool, we need to ensure that larger pool usage fees would apply to Wenham users.  Fortunately, the financial analysis demonstrates that user fees would not only support the pool’s operation, but long term maintenance as well as reduced CPA funding for Hamilton.

We’ve had several community, committee and board meetings to vet the American Legion Memorial Pool project. The Community Preservation Committee, Joint Rec Board, FinCom and Board of Selectmen all support the project. Please attend Town Meeting 11/4, 7 pm at our Regional High School. Your vote is required to keep our valuable community asset.

Scott Maddern