Palatine Residents Turn Out To Save Willow Pool

Residents packed the Palatine Park District board's Tuesday meeting in an effort to save Willow Pool.

The park district is expected to decide whether to close the pool at their May 10 meeting. Park District Executive Director Ron Gbur has recommended the pool be closed and demolished after this summer and not replaced.

"This pool is so important to us, I'm getting choked because I've only lived here since 2008 and this pool means everything to us," said Sue Bloomquist. "Just really consider when you go to vote all these kids, and these families that rely on this pool and love this pool and have built solid relationships with neighbors and their community because of this pool."

Willow Pool is more than 44 years old. Originally built by a housing developer, the park district was asked to take over the operation of the pool years ago. The pool is small with a capacity of 125 bathers; park officials have said they would not build a pool today with a capacity below 500 bathers.

"Rebuilding and operating a pool for primarily a neighborhood is [not] in the best interest of the entire park district," Gbur said. "When I make recommendations to the park board I have to make recommendations for 83,000 people."

Gbur said the park district's other three pools–, , and –are sufficient to serve the park district.

"These three pool sites will be very modern and attractive sites for the future and will offer a wide variety of activities at these sites that everyone can enjoy," Gbur said.

Several residents, however, said they liked Willow Pool, 530 N. Stark Drive, because it was smaller and less crowded. They said that it was easier to keep track of small children than at the larger pools.

John Ollas said he lives "a stone's throw" from Willow pool and has lived in the neighborhood since 1966. Ollas pointed out that the original cost of the pool was part of the price of the homes in the subdivision when they were built.

He also said that having a pool on the east side of Palatine was a selling point because children didn't have to cross busy streets to get to other park district pools.

"One thing that really sold us on this was that the kids didn't have to cross [Route] 14. it was dangerous at that time and the town was only 17,000 people," Ollas said. "I think it's really sad that this came up...I saw the signs that were on the street [about the pool issue] and I said 'you got to be kidding.' "

Several residents expressed concern about safety and what would happen if children cross busy streets–Hicks Road to reach Eagle Pool, 1425 N. Oak St., and Route 14 to reach the Family Aquatic Center, 340 E. Palatine Rd.

Residents Jim Dietrich and Mike Henning made a presentation arguing the pool should remain open. They pointed out that even with Willow open, Palatine was below the pool capacity for the park district recommended by the district's own consultants.

The study recommended the district have capacity for 3,089 bathers, with Willow open the district's capacity is 2,925. Also Dietrich and Henning pointed out that although Willow lost $44,000 in 2010, other park district programs, such as the Palatine Stables, also lost money.

However, because Willow is small, its cost per attendee was high. For example, the Family Aquatic Center lost more money–$54,000–but its attendance was 58,245. Willow's attendance was 6,208.

Deb McDaniel said the pool was one of the reasons she bought her home. She said closing the pool would devalue homes in the area.

"The reason we bought the house instead of building a brand new house close to Palatine High School was the proximity of the pool," McDaniel said. "I walk there. I don't drive there and I like that pool."