The college’s Board of Trustees approved in 2023 renovations to the recreation center, budgeted at more than $6 million, which includes a significant redesign of offices and exercise areas on the second floor, and expansion of the weight room with new equipment on the first floor. Yet it excluded the pool from its plan. 

The Board is reluctant to invest in the pool, citing revenue loss and operating costs, the inability to staff lifeguards, and declining use by the public among its reasons. There also are other projects vying for attention, like student housing, safety driver training facility, administrative building, and athletic field house.

The Pool Audit: 

A pool engineering audit conducted by Counsilman-Hunsaker, received in September 2023, gives important information about what is actually required to repair the pool. Far from being near the end of its life, the pool is in very good shape despite its age. The structural integrity of the pool is sound: there is no evidence of settling or buckling. The report cited deferred maintenance that has resulted in some excess corrosion of fittings and pipes. The pool’s tiled shell and deck are in good shape and do not need to be replaced, retiled, or relined, simply spot repaired. It is prudent to replace the main, cast-iron pipe that runs beneath the pool. Nearly all of the “big ticket” items in the report are NOT necessary for the pool to be in good, functional shape for the future.             

It is interesting to note that the recommendations from Counsilman-Hunsaker echo the WSCC Administration’s own assessment of the pool in the 2020 Campus Facilities Master Plan, Section 2-16, with the exception of indicating that the tiles needed to be replaced rather than repaired:

Recommendations for Recreation Center: Replacement of pool filtration and infrastructure components. The pump and piping infrastructure, as well as the filtration system support the pool needs to be replaced or renovated. The pool and deck require re-tiling and the original piping connecting the mechanical room to locations under the pool needs to be replaced.  

Sometime in the last four years, the Administration adopted the perspective that major renovations to the pool were necessary, setting up the all-or-nothing binary of $3.5 million vs. nothing. Replacing tiles, washing and resealing all tiles and grout, new filtration, and replacing some key mechanical items adds up to approximately $800,000 with the whirlpool spa. This is nowhere near the $3.5 million reported by the Administration. Indeed, with $18 million on-hand in the short-term investments, and another $3 to $3.5 million to come from next year’s millage, the college has significant funds to repair and maintain for many years this critical and cherished resource that belongs to all of us. 

Where We Go from Here:

The community has actively used the pool at WSCC. Swimming classes for youth and adults, therapy sessions for adults undergoing physical rehabilitation and general aging issues, recreational use, lap swimming, and family open swim.  

When COVID peaked in 2020, these community outreach programs, that basically paid for themselves, were stopped and never re-instated post-pandemic, with the exception of recreational and lap swimming. 

FOTP would like to see many of the programs, discontinued during COVID, now reinstated, including open family swims, swimming lessons, and water exercise classes.   

They are important to the community, most keenly our aging residents, with 40% of the population within ten miles of Ludington Hospital over the age of 55. According to a poll of our members, more than half use the pool for zero gravity exercise and water therapy.

FOTP re-imagines the pool at WSCC as an aquatics center with a wide range of programs (i.e. lifeguard training, instruction for all levels of swimmer, scuba diving training, and post operative water therapy).  It’s a resource that once gone, would be impossibl;e to replace. 

A majority of our members are members of the WSCC Recreation Center and have been swimming at the pool for an average of eight years. If the pool were to close, 90% have indicated they would have no need for using the center, as the pool is the draw. The community provides a major portion of revenues that keep the Recreation Center and the pool open. 

As an organization, we plan on being around as long as the pool needs the support of the community.

In fact, a survey of our members revealed a large majority would volunteer in some capacity to help keep the pool open. Several individuals have offered to be certified as lifeguards or as instructors. The college has yet to make use of these resources. 

FOTP is eager to rekindle the relationship with the high school for lifeguard resources, as well as to work with a variety of community resources to use the pool for water safety programs, physical therapy and rehabilitation, and a wider variety of recreation opportunities for all age groups and abilities.

We want to preserve the pool as a community resource for the next 50 years.