Come to City Hall at 6PM, THURS, 11/2 with your swim goggles...swim suit...towel...WHATEVER...to show the Finance & Personnel Committee your support for $ in 2018 for Veterans Memorial Pool. If you can't make it, call or email the Mayor & City Council NOW and simply state: "Please support $1m-2m for the pool in 2018!" Email all council members at: zzcouncilmembers@cityoflacrosse.org Email the mayor at: kabatt@cityoflacrosse.org call the mayor at: (608) 789-7500 Phone numbers to call city council members are here: http://www.cityoflacrosse.org/councilmembers THANK YOU FOR YOUR 3 YEARS OF CONTINUED SUPPORT-OUR TIME IS NOW!!! More news below... 10/27/2017 - PRESS – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Community Pool Committee Receives $10,000 Donation From Ho-Chunk And Completes City-wide Programming Analysis Identifying Needed Aquatic Activities And Revenue Opportunities For Veterans Memorial Pool. LA CROSSE, WI – Grandview-Emerson Neighborhood Association (GENA) and the Memorial Pool Committee continues its efforts to revitalize Veterans Memorial Municipal Pool after 2 1/2 years of closure. In preparation for the Architecture & Engineering to be completed on the new facility, community members took it upon themselves to examine what other communities are doing to better meet city-wide aquatic programming needs. The publicly funded study, which expands on their earlier 2016 Facility Evaluation also by ISG, has encouraging news on how to achieve better cost-recovery for operating the pool as well as how to reverse the declines in citywide attendance reported at the pools since Memorial Pool closed. “This study explains where La Crosse as a whole has gaps to fill and how Veterans Memorial Pool can return to being a leader as the modern, cost effective facility it was for many decades before its drop-off”, states Logan High School teacher and collaborator, Kraig Brownell who has extensive experience managing pools as well as coaching swimming in La Crosse. The Programming Analysis examines how to best serve as a neighborhood pool while expanding on existing swim lessons, aquatic fitness classes, dry deck-side use, competitive and rec swimming, and serving special needs as well as under-served populations. Opportunities to better partner with its UWL neighbor, serve as a Veterans Memorial for Veterans families to build community, and how community health needs for therapy, fitness, aquatic safety and life-saving can all be addressed are in the report as well. To be most effective, Memorial Pool Committee members were from multiple neighborhoods. “While focusing this past year on the size, historic nature and location of the pool, we haven’t talked enough about the most obvious feature – how people will swim in it! Working on this study to ensure the pool lasts another 80-plus years was forward-thinking, collaborative and a lot of fun”, says Jacob Sciammas, chair for the Memorial Pool Committee. One of the key findings was that the City of La Crosse lacks a Rec Swim Team that even smaller surrounding communities have. Because the Northside and Erickson pools lack lane swimming and Memorial has been closed, it would be nearly impossible to have a program without Veterans Memorial Pool which offered Rec Swimming in the past. Once the Rec Swim Team can be resurrected at Veterans Memorial Pool’s central location, then adding additional teams at Erickson and the Northside may be more feasible. The report also recommends adding lane-lines along with lane-swimming times to work toward Rec Teams as well as to offer more fitness opportunities for swimmers of all ages at both other pools. Susan Bulk from the Weigent-Hogan neighborhood has been a swimming and log-rolling instructor for decades at places like the YMCA, City of Onalaska and City of La Crosse and she was excited to contribute to the study. “I have heard for years how excited families, adults and seniors are for more programming, and this document can be our road map to get more people and all walks of life involved in a greater variety of aquatics. It’s for the sake of our community’s safety and wellness”. The programming study process has already been instrumental in 3 ways by: helping describe how the pool, newly named as “Veterans Memorial Pool” this month, will go beyond physical features to include Veterans programming; developing a pilot program with the Cia Siab Hmong Youth Group for swimming lessons this summer at Logan High School in partnership with La Crosse Neighborhoods, Inc; and assisting with the $10,000 gift from the Ho-Chunk to the Memorial Pool Committee. “When we met with the Ho-Chunk they wanted their money to go to the pool shell so their youth can get back to swimming there and adults can get back to the water walking they loved. All of these efforts show how committed the community is to making sure our homework is done to get Veterans Memorial Pool up and running soon. Together we have been helping for 3 years, and we are so grateful for the support from City Council”, says Jacob Sciammas. Supporters are encouraged to contact City Officials and Mayor Kabat as well as to attend the public hearing at the Finance and Personnel Meeting on Thursday, November 2nd at 6pm. The City Council is scheduled to vote on the 2018-2022 Capital Improvement Budget in November and currently $725,000 is budgeted in addition to the $250,000 from 2017 for Veterans Memorial Pool. The Memorial Pool Committee is recommending $1-2million in 2018 to encourage ~$1million in private community funds and so the remaining 2019 budget amount, of the total $4million expected cost, is more achievable. GENA Posts & Updates as well as the Programming Analysis can be found here: http://lacrosseneighborhoods.org/category/gena-posts/ and https://www.facebook.com/savememorialpool The public and press are welcome to the Ho-Chunk check presentation and to visit with the Memorial Pool Committee members regarding the Analysis on Tuesday, October 31st at 2pm at Memorial Pool (1901 Campbell Rd) Contact: Jacob Sciammas, Memorial Pool & Infrastructure Committee, savememorialpoollax@gmail.com, 608-461-2060