Have you ever had an argument with someone over the color of
the sky?  It’s green, they claim.  With no tornado in sight on a beautiful
summer day, you know the sky is actually blue.  Of course, in MI our sky is usually more grey than blue, but
that’s not the point!  You provide
scientific evidence, pictures and affidavits of 5,000 people who swear the sky
is blue, yet your friend is convinced it’s green.

The entire conversation sounds completely insane doesn’t
it? 

Yes, but it is eerily similar to the year-long struggle
between Save our Pools and the City of Dearborn.  Last year the city threatened to close and demolish 6 of the
8 outdoor pools.  The residents
came out in droves to tell them they were wrong.  They had videos and pictures espousing the importance of the
pools to everyone who lives in Dearborn. 
The Mayor changed his mind and the pools opened.  It began to look like everyone agreed
the sky was blue. 

SOP went one step further and showed how inflated the
numbers were that estimated the costs of repairing and renovating the
pools.  According to the NSA study,
it would cost the city $1,277,700 to keep up all 8 of the pools over the next
five years (averages $255,540 per year). 
Ryan Woods of SOP gave us a more realistic version of those
numbers.  According to his
calculations, over the next 5 years it would cost just $183,400 (averages $36,680
per year).

I am no accountant, but those numbers don’t seem to add
up. 

Dearborn is in the hole. That, we can all agree on.  The Mayor believes that one solution to
this problem is to close the small pools and demolish them.  This year, closing three pools is
estimated to save the city $75,000. 
Demolition costs $20,000 per pool. 
The sky is green.

In just a few months last year, the efforts from the city,
community and Save Our Pools shaved $95,011 from the operating costs of the
pools.  They have identified
multiple sponsorship opportunities to ease the burden on the city, and
motivated hundreds of volunteers to paint fences, buildings and otherwise clean
up the pools so the city didn’t have to shoulder those costs.  The difference in costs from the NSA
study to the SOP revisions is roughly $218,874 per year.  The sky is blue.

In tough times, we are responsible to make good fiscal
decisions but do what we can to preserve the treasures that make our city
unique and give people reasons to move here (Blue Sky).

When the residents of Dearborn have come out to give their
time and money to something that matters to them, it is politically sensible to
ignore it and cut the thing they fight for because it is low hanging fruit on
the budget tree (Green Sky).

When people are willing to put their time and energy into
maintaining a city service, the city should thank them and search for more
creative solutions for cuts and savings in other areas that people are willing
to compromise on (Blue Sky).

Don’t get me wrong, the people who work on these budgets put
a ton of time and consideration into every decision and I appreciate that.  But, I think that once the residents in
Dearborn have made it clear there are certain decisions they won’t stand for,
it is the responsibility of our elected officials to make changes.  The city must work with the residents
and community groups that form out of our collective passion to create lasting
solutions and not quick fixes to appease the crowd. 

It is time to make our intentions clear to the city yet
again and demand a Blue Sky.  Join
SOP at a rally on May 25th, 7:00 pm at Ten Eyck pool.  

To learn more about how you can help, join the Save Our
Small Pools group on Facebook.

By the way, did you hear three libraries are going to be
cut, too?