Push to keep Wayland pool open

Wayland residents are fighting to keep an aging community pool open, at least until a new privately funded pool and community center can be built.

Despite charging individual membership fees and swim team use fees, the town has had to pump more than $100,000 into the 36-year-old Wayland Town Pool on Old Connecticut Path in each of the last three years, said Nancy McShea, director of the Park and Recreation Department.

The Wayland Park and Recreation Commission voted last year to close the five-lane indoor pool in March, after swim seasons end for the four clubs who use it, including the Wayland High School team and the Junior Warriors, a town club for children ages 4 to 13.

The commission will revisit that decision tomorrow night.

Jeanne Downs, head coach of the Junior Warriors, and several parents of swimmers will ask the town to consider a new way of operating the pool so it can stay open, at least temporarily.

Downs estimated that the town's losses can be reduced to $20,000 a year if the town recruits more swim teams to use the facility as their full-time practice site.

The commission will consider that request if the nonprofit group working to build a new pool, Wayland Aquatics and Community Center Inc., continues to make progress, McShea said.

''Everyone's still hoping something can be worked out," said Amanda Harrington, a senior who swims for Wayland High School and also helps to coach the Junior Warriors.

Park and Recreation Commissioner Anna Meliones, one of those pushing for a new pool, said she believes the commission will support the request to temporarily keep the pool open.

Meliones, a former Junior Warriors coach, said she originally voted to close the pool, despite having worked so many years to build up the town's swim program, because she did not think it was fair for the town to foot the bill. Children from more than 200 Wayland families swim at the pool.

She said she thinks the decision to close the pool rallied the community behind the cause.

''We don't want to lose this asset," she said. ''Once you close that building, it's all over."

The town bought the facility from a private group for $1 six years ago and paid $300,000 to install a ventilation system, McShea said.

The pool had more than 600 members at the time, but membership slowly dropped as new pools opened at fitness centers in the region. Last year, only 130 people joined.

The building has also fallen into disrepair. The lobby and locker rooms could use makeovers, McShea said, and rotting boards on the building's exterior need to be replaced and painted.

Though Meliones planned to vote at the upcoming meeting to keep the pool open, she said that for years she has believed the facility is inadequate to meet the swim clubs' and community's needs. An eight- to 10-lane pool would enable the clubs to hold proper meets and would also allow residents and swim teams to use the pool at the same time, she said.

The board for the new pool organization has raised more than $25,000. One option being considered is rebuilding and expanding the current facility. The organization will be surveying Wayland residents about what they would want from a community center.

The organization plans to launch a major fund-raising campaign later this year to raise the $7 million to $10 million members estimate it will cost to design and build the facility.