Overview

• Right Now:  As of May 12 2008, top priorities are covered here: Update from SeattlePools.org: Help Put Pools in the Parks Levy
• Ongoing:  Write to the Seattle Parks Department Strategic Planners
• Join Us

Write

You can still influence the final Parks Department Strategic Plan by emailing your comments to the Parks Strategic Planning Coordinator:  Susanne Friedman Susanne.Friedman@Seattle.Gov.

If you write a letter to the Strategic Planning Coordinator, you can also send your letter to:

• Superintendent Tim Gallagher, Seattle Parks and Recreation, 100 Dexter Ave N.,Seattle, WA 98109.  Email:  timothy.gallagher@seattle.gov. Tell him why swimming matters to you and your family.  Kids’ letters help too.
• Mayor Greg Nickels, PO Box 94749 Seattle, WA 98124-4749.  Tell him why pools "build strong families and healthy communities," one of his key initiatives.  Outdoor pools are particularly good at becoming community gathering places.
• Councilman Tom Rasmussen, Chair of the City Council’s Parks Committee.  Email:  tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov

Here’s a Letter You Can Forward To Friends:

Dear Swimmers and Families,
As you know, Seattle public pools are overflowing and overbooked.  Project Seattle Pools needs your help to convince City leaders that it’s time to add public pools.  Letters from swimmers like you have already helped to place an initial pool feasibility study into the Parks Department’s plan for 2008.  Now we have a new challenge.  We need your help to convince the Parks Department to prioritize pool space in its 5-year Strategic Plan.  If Parks & Rec does not hear strong support for pools, pools will go to the back of the line for another 5 years. 

How to Help: 
#1: Email your comments to Parks Strategic Planning Coordinator Susanne Friedman: Susanne.Friedman@Seattle.Gov.  Note that we’ve heard that attendance at public forums themselves will have the most impact.
#2:  If you have time, it’s also helpful to send letters to Mayor Nichols (PO Box 94749 Seattle, WA 98124-4749), Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher (Seattle Parks and Recreation, 100 Dexter Ave N.,Seattle, WA 98109 timothy.gallagher@seattle.gov) and City Council Parks Committee Chair Tom Rasmussen (tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov).  Tell them how well pools “build strong families and healthy communities,” one of the Mayor’s key initiatives. 

Email elizabeth@seattlepools.org if you have questions, want to receive updates or would like to join our team.  You can watch www.seattlepools.org for updates.

Thanks so much for your help. 

–The Project Seattle Pools Team

Pool Facts
Seattle has 1.7 pools/100,000 residents while the average US city boasts 3.0/100,000 (Trust for Public Lands, 2006).  Our city has built only one pool in 30 years.  The filtration systems of many existing public pools can’t keep up with the heavy use they see today, so they have to close one day a week to deal with chlorine byproducts.

We still have only 2 outdoor public pools, neither one centrally located.  The new Mounger pool has proven the cost-effectiveness of outdoor, public pools– it has a 95% cost-recovery rate for yearly operations and spends summers packed to the gills.  No wonder private outdoor pools have 8-10 year waiting lists—View Ridge Pool, for example, has 847 families on its wait list. 

We’re short on pools of all sorts.  Seattle has only one 50 meter public pool and it’s only open in the summer.  Public rehab pools with graduated entries are common in other cities but Seattle does not have a single one.  Kids’ swim teams hit the water hours before dawn because public swim lanes are so scarce.  It’s the right time to add pools!  We’ll keep posting pool more facts here:  http://seattlepools.org/resources-3/

Join Us

It will take a broad-based movement to get pools built in Seattle.  We need your help to leverage your networks and reach out to your community.  Roles we need filled:

• Swim Team & Masters Team Reps.  Post fliers at team practices.  Email your team members.  Speak up at team meetings.  Chat with other parents in the bleachers.  Get info into team newsletters.
• School Reps.  Make sure announcements get into your school’s newsletters.
• Community Club Reps.  Ask your Community Club to write a letter of support.  Get info into your neighborhood’s newsletter.  Put up fliers in your neighborhood.
• Private Pool Reps.  Even though private pool members already have access to pools, they know friends who can’t get in off of waiting lists.  Can you get the word out to members and wait lists?
• Core Planning Team Members. 

Please email elizabeth@seattlepools.org to join our team in any capacity.  She will post a list of reps as the broad team forms. 

Bonus for Volunteer Reps:  An email address @seattlepools.org if you’d like one.