Ronin Pool has good summer

Ronin Pool had a successful summer and officials said they are excited to begin work to make it useful for years to come.

"We finished the season with a doggy dip," said Kim Koski, recreation superintendent for the Fremont Parks and Recreation Department. "We had 22 participants, everyone had a good time and there were no fights. It was a lot of fun."

That’s one of the benefits of keeping and upgrading the pool, she said, the unique programs. Some of those include baseball games, dodge ball games and activities like a biggest splash competition.

These evening programs attracted 544 swimmers this year despite many of them being canceled due to weather.

"Ronin is just a different atmosphere," Koski said. "You know the kids’ names - they’re there every day. Ronin is a neighborhood pool."

This year, Ronin Pool had 6,503 swimmers for an average of 89 per day. That is up from 2007 when the pool had an average of 84 swimmers per day for a total of 6,066.

However, that isn’t necessarily a fair comparison because of early summer weather.

"That’s a lot of swimmers," said John Schmitz, director of the parks and recreation department, "especially when you consider how cool and wet the first month was."

Residents near Ronin Pool pushed to keep the pool open.

"I was happy that they rose to the challenge and came to the pool," Koski said. "They wanted to keep the pool and showed it."

The pool had higher receipts and cut expenses. Expenses in 2007 were more than $65,000 but just $31,000 through July, the newest numbers available at press time.

"We downsized staff without cutting safety and cut expenses," Schmitz said. "In virtually all cities, a tub swimming pool like this is going to be subsidized."

A lot of those expenses can be blamed on leaks in the pool that cause a loss of 4-6 inches of water every day. That not only adds to costs for water, but also to chemical use and costs.

That’s why there is a plan to repair Ronin Pool in three phases. Schmitz said that plan is ultimately expected to cost between $350,000 and $400,000 and expected to take more than one budget year. Money for the first year was included in the budget that was passed this week.

There is an initial design for the repair work that is expected to lengthen the life of the pool by 15 years, versus $2 million-$3 million to build a new similar pool.

The first phase would be to tear out and replace the pool deck, plumbing and drains.

"That will address the leak problems," Koski said.

Koski said the intent never was to close Ronin Pool.

"Once we dug deeper, we realized it’s a doable project and worth doing," she said. "We think we can extend the life 15 years. It’s worth saving."