Volunteers led by community activist William Ali and Mark Lane of Save Our Pools Dearborn helped refurbish Lapeer Pool on the south end of the city. A proposal to close the pool a day before budget approval caught many off guard but was then rescinded. Photo courtesy of William Ali

DEARBORN — While most of the talk leading up to June 6 final
city budget hearing before the council vote the next day had been about closing
Ten Eyck pool on the west side, a late recommendation was made by council
members to make the switch to Lapeer Pool on the southeast part of the city.

Lapeer Pool was eventually saved for the time being as was
Ten Eyck, but the quick turnaround surprised many, including Council President
Pro Tem Suzanne Sareini. 

City officials have routinely maintained that tough cuts
would have to be made in the face of massive budget deficits due to a widely
diminished tax base, which necessitated the closing of Whitmore-Bolles and
Hemlock Pools as well this year.

But the Lapeer situation seemingly came out of left field
according to members of the Save Our Pools organization, south end community
organizer William Ali, and Sareini.

A letter sent to the mayor on May 26 with additional budget
recommendations including the adding of Lapeer to the list of possible closures
along with the other three pools was given to Mayor Jack O’Reilly by the
council that included a signature from Sareini.

But Sareini, who grew up in the area, maintains that she did
not read the letter and was strongly opposed to the closing of Lapeer because
of the lack of other recreational options for kids.

“I called the mayor and said I can’t vote for any
budget that includes the closing of Lapeer Pool,” Sareini said. “They
(wanted to trade) Lapeer Pool to give the Ten Eyck people their pool, and I’m
glad Ten Eyck stayed open, they deserve it, but I originally had no idea.”

Ten Eyck had been originally slated to be closed according
to O’Reilly because it was believed that Summer Stevens nearby could be an
alternative for residents.

Sareini had entered the hospital on April 29 for a difficult
surgical procedure to repair two ruptured disks in her neck and had only been
able to attend one meeting from that date until the final budget hearing. She
said she watched about 15 hours worth of meetings during that time on tapes to
follow along with council politics, although she was not in good  condition due to strong medications
following the surgery, and said she didn’t hear anything about Lapeer Pool
being potentially closed.

According to O’Reilly and Councilman David Bazzy, Salina
School’s indoor pool on the south end was also explored as a potential
alternative to mitigate the proposed closing of Lapeer.

But after a cost analysis, Bazzy said it wouldn’t be
effective. “Opening Salina and having them use it as an alternative would
have actually been more expensive,” he said.

Sareini said that plan had been talked about casually for
20 years.

The Lapeer Pool had already been filled prior to its
scheduled seasonal opening, which factored into the decision not to close it.
The filling costs roughly $3,000-$5,000 according to data from the recreational
department obtained by the SOP group. A team led by SOP representative Mark
Lane and Ali along with 50-60 kids helped prep the pool through volunteer work,
another reason why the surprise closing would have been devastating.

Bazzy said that once the council had heard that the pool had
already been filled it was late in the process. He said that every pool is at
risk due to funding issues, although the council and city are exploring all
options to keep pools, libraries and other assets open.

“The only two pools that are safe are Ford Woods and
Levigood,” he said. “Every other pool is at risk due to funding
issues in the current three-year budget that came up.”

The goal of keeping the two major pools open in the future
is to have one central location to cover as many residents as possible at the
very least.

O’Reilly said he now hopes that the Save Our Pools group
will turn its ideas and passion for its cause into more funds as members groups
like the historical society, animal shelter and others have.

Sareini said she believed that the SOP members, who attended
the June 6 and June 7 meetings in large numbers and strongly supported Ten Eyck
(as well as all of the other pools) had some influence in helping to keep the
west side pool open.

Once south end community members were informed of the
pending closure of Lapeer after the June 6 meeting, a group of representatives
came out the next day in order to appeal for a reversal of the decision,
however. They had not known of the Lapeer closing issue until the night of June
6.

Sareini is still surprised that her name was added to the
letter, however, and said she will not authorize anyone to do so again, even
for minor issues as has been customary for her and others in the past.

“We used the best data we could and that was the only
fair way to do it,” O’Reilly said about the closures, also noting that he
understood frustrations and preferred to not close any pools or libraries.
“We mitigated the loss as much as possible.”

“I’m grateful to the mayor that he was able to work it
out,” Sareini said. “The crux of what we want to do is keep a
balanced city with ample recreation, police and fire protection, access to the
arts, literature and more to make this an attractive place to live.”