After the school district makes clear it doesn't want it, now what? By Grant Parpan ROCKY POINT--The Rocky Point School District has called fish out of water on plans to include a community pool as part of the Fairfield development. After gauging community opinions on their website for close to a month, administrators and the school board alike made it clear at the most recent board meeting they would not support a pool, which would be donated to the district by the developers. At Wednesday's meeting of the Rocky Point Civic Association, members began to focus their attention on what's next. "The administration made it clear that they don't feel the benefit (of a pool) is academic," civic president Diane Burke said. "They don't want to support something that is not academic. "We now need to figure out what we want to do." Ms. Burke suspects the civic will get a clearer picture of what its next step is at a closed session of the land-use committee next week. Those in attendance at Thursday's civic meeting were given a copy of the comments made by residents on the district website. Most of the remarks were from people opposed to the pool, largely because of the financial burden it might impose. Ms. Burke said she felt most of the posters were misinformed, though. While the district originally estimated that the pool would cost close to $900,000 annually to maintain, a cost analysis put together by Ms. Burke, who formerly worked in international finance, and civic membership secretary Carolyn Reynen proposed a more modest number. They found that a pool would cost less than $525,000 to maintain. In addition, they said, revenues brought in by the pool could be more than $350,000. Under Ms. Burke's and Ms. Reynen's analysis, which they compiled by talking with administrators from districts that currently operate pools, the pool would cost less than $20 per year for the average Rocky Point household. "That's a rough estimate," Ms. Burke said. "But a reasonable one. "Most districts I spoke with felt a pool is a wonderful way to tie their communities to their districts." After hearing Ms. Burke's and Ms. Reynen's presentation, the district's position didn't change much. "They're position now is that it's too much of a cost risk for the future," Ms. Burke said. Rocky Point superintendent Carla D'Ambrosio told The Sun in March she suspected that should the budget fail in a given year, the pool would have to be first to go. "Then we have this pool nobody's using," Dr. D'Ambrosio said. The district is prepared to accept a new administration building, land and graded ball fields from the Fairfield developers. The concept of the pool came out of the charette, at the request of the residents. While the developers were prepared to donate the land to the community, the community, Ms. Burke said, wanted to give back to the schools. "Now we must decide if we still want to do that, or keep it for the community," Ms. Burke said. The pool plans may not even be dead. Civic members have discussed exploring a partnership with the YMCA, which would enable them to keep their pool hopes alive at no cost to the district. At Thursday's meeting, many civic members expressed the idea of having a recreational center or something built on the Fairfield property that would benefit the youth of the community. The fact remains, though, that the residents are far from deciding what they want. "And that's fine," Ms. Burke said. "It seems like we're pressed for time, but (the developers) aren't even close to breaking ground on this project." Plans for the pool, however, have sprung a slow leak.
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