University of Wisconsin students have more than just one vote to cast today.
Madison residents can vote on a pool referendum as part of today’s election, which will decide where the long-awaited pool will be built in Madison.
“When I first came to Madison in the ’80s, it blew my mind that Madison didn’t have a pool,” said Bonnie Griswold, a citizen member of the swimming pool committee.
The pool referendum on today’s ballot will determine if Franklin Field and Warner Park will stay in the running as possible locations for the pool. Currently, the other locations are Franklin Field and Warner, Elver, Heistand and Reindahl parks.
“The decision will be based on a number of things: a good location, space availability at the park and soil samples that we have yet to get back,” Griswold said.
One possible location that fell out of the running early was Breese Stevens Field. Although it is close to downtown, it was discovered that, prior to being a youth soccer field, it served as a landfill.
The proposed family aquatic center will include a zero depth pool and deep water slides. The zero depth pool is similar to water park wave pools.
The committee has been meeting once a week since August to iron out the glitches within the referendum. They have been looking at a variety of surrounding communities’ pools for examples.
“We have been looking at Columbus and Sun Prairie county pools,” Griswold said. “But a decision will be made next Monday night where we are going to put the pool.”
The committee will finance the pool with a $2 million donation from the Goodman brothers, $100,000 from Cuna Insurance and $500,000 from the mayor’s budget. This, however, still may not be enough to cover the costs.
“There is a plan A and a plan B,” said Randall Glysch, park commission member representative of the committee. “For plan A we need to raise $4 million, which will raise our capacity to 1,000, and for plan B we need about $3.2 million which will accommodate about 800 bathers.”
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has put together a fundraising team to help offset the cost difference. The team includes former County Executive Rick Phelps, Gary Wolter of Madison Gas and Electric, and local community active George Austin.
The team’s job is to raise the extra money by February in time to start construction bidding. One possible fundraising strategy is getting corporate sponsorship.
“If we don’t have the money and break ground by July 1, 2005, we will lose the money,” Glysch said.
The committee is dedicated to making the pool available to everyone, even UW students, Glysch added. Tuesday’s decision will play an important role in how soon the groundbreaking can begin.
“I think it’s about … time Madison got a pool,” UW senior Emily Gredler said. “I think students would definitely pay $1.50 to go swimming on a hot day.”
