Election finance reform needs a constitutional amendment

Earlier this month, Mayor Mike Wellner spoke to a local civic organization and outlined a plan to eliminate the city pool from the city park and instead combine it as a shared facility with a new school pool if one is ever approved by voters.
School officials have made similar suggestions and gone so far as to suggest the school could simply give up having a pool at all.
There is no doubt pools are costly to build and maintain. However, with an ongoing regular maintenance schedule and good design they can also last nearly forever. While it has had major work done to it over the years, the Medford city pool in the park is more than 50 years old and could see many more years ahead of it.
The school pool also would not be an issue if it weren’t for the pesky pipe problem where replacing the plumbing when the chlorinated water eventually corrodes through will nearly require removal of the pool in order to access the pipes.
It would be easy to look at the two pools and assume they are an example of duplicated services. Such a view would be short-sighted. On hot summer days the city pool is an oasis for youth and adults in the City of Medford to cool off and the pool sees heavy use. Removing the pool from the city park would be like prying the diamond out of a wedding ring. While the remaining setting may be pretty, you are left with a vacant hole in what was once the focal point.
Possibly the most overlooked purpose of the city pool is to serve as a deterrent to people swimming in the millpond. The archives of this newspaper record the many tragedies that occurred through the summer months of children drowning in the millpond prior to a city pool being built.
City residents take for granted that we have access to a quality facility staffed with well-trained lifeguards.
The school pool’s primary purpose is as an educational facility. This is done through both school programs and through the popular Swim Klub organization — a volunteer run group which has helped teach children in the Medford area to swim. Except when the pool is down for maintenance there is a steady usage throughout the year. Such improvements as creating a zero-entry accessible area or deepening it to allow for diving would be good additions.
At a time when we are struggling to have our business and industry leaders actually live in the community, the concept of stepping backward and giving up community facilities is mind boggling.
While the city pool issue has yet to make it beyond the department head shadow council to be discussed by elected officials, the school board will take up the school pool issue later this month. Let us hope when the issue sees the light of day officials look beyond their short-term pocket books and remember these facilities have lifespans of generations.