By Henry Valz
The Evergreen State College pool has been the centerpiece of the Thurston County aquatics community for nearly 60 years.
Generations of children have learned how to swim there. Clubs have used it for practices and competitions for decades. Four high schools currently use it, supporting about 200 student-athletes.
Evergreen isn't only used by high school swimmers for competition. This last July, the pool hosted the Washington State Senior Games at the facility. Olympia School District students provided over 100 hours of community service to help set up and put on the event.
The same Olympia athletes and coaches have already planned and funded a swim and dive camp for this summer that would have provided free swim lessons for hundreds of Thurston County students.
The importance of swim lessons cannot be overstated. Just a single set of swim lessons reduces the chances of drowning by 88 percent. Olympia coaches and swimmers have provided free lessons to nearly 1,000 students since the COVID-19 pandemic, and planned to provide even more in the future.
While all these positive events have been happening at the Evergreen pool, Thurston County has been losing pools for the last 30 years. The county now has less pool space than it had in 1994, due to the privatization of Tumwater Valley and the closure of the Downtown YMCA. In those 32 years, the population of Thurston County has nearly doubled.
Quite simply, the Evergreen State College pool is irreplaceable. It is the largest pool south of Federal Way. It represents one-third of the diving wells in the entire county, and more than 40 percent of the lane space in publicly available pools.
All this makes it all the more devastating that on Feb. 26, The Evergreen State College announced without any warning or community input or discussion, that it would close the pool permanently on June 30.
Swimming and diving provides structure, exercise, comradery and hours away from social media, not just for students, but for everyone. Communities need pools. Olympia desperately needs The Evergreen State College pool.
All we are asking from Evergreen is that they pause this rash and short-sighted decision, and work with the community as a whole to help protect this invaluable resource.
Please consider emailing Evergreen president Dr. John Carmichael at
president@evergreen.edu, and signing our
online petition here.
Henry Valz is the assistant swim coach at Olympia High School.
WhamboMPS
I compliment Mr. Valz on how well he crafted this opinion piece. Some very cogent arguments were laid out -- I particularly liked his compelling stat that "Just a single set of swim lessons reduces the chances of drowning by 88 percent. " It's a sobering thought.
However, the problem isn't whether having the pool is a community benefit - few would argue against that position. Instead the problem is that in a world of scarce resources, is this the highest and best use of limited tax dollars? The state legislature cut Evergreen's budget by 2% in the current fiscal year. And the budget cut for FY 2027 grows to 5%. And this happened while inflation is clicking along at 2.4%. If inflation were to remain unchanged (which won't be the case, but stay with me), in real terms Evergreen's funding will decline by 9.5% in the two years from 2025 to 2027. Something has to give.
Several years ago I attended a community town hall hosted by U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell. After her canned remarks finished the floor was opened to questions from the audience. Over the next hour speaker after speaker either said "The government needs to fund worthwhile program 'XYZ'." Or they said "Taxes are too high and they need to be cut." The reality is that we all want more from our government but no one wants to pay for it. In isolation, the vast majority of residents would likely agree that the pool is a good thing that should remain open. But budgets are exercises in trade-offs and choices. Evergreen's Board of Trustees was faced with impossible choices and had to make cuts that no one would have wanted. I personally am willing to trust that the choice to close the pool was, while not a good decision, the least-bad decision that could have been made.
Friday, March 6 Report this
OlyBlues
Great article from Mr. Valz really highlighting the importance of TESC's pool. I also enjoyed reading WhamboMPS's comment; so very true.
In reading through the JOLT this morning, it strikes me that our local cities were quick to jump on board funding thousands of tax dollars to the ridiculous FIFA fan zone that no one knows how many people will attend, how successful it will be, etc. but in stark contrast, the pool that has proven its value is left to die. While TESC's Board of Trustees must make these difficult choices and pools are expensive to operate and maintain, the Board is completely out of touch with the community to not engage stakeholders and provide adequate time for collective fundraising.
It is not too late to save the pool. $60K is not an insurmountable amount of money to raise for one year while a sustainability plan is developed between local schools, TESC, the cities, and the county.
Saturday, March 7 Report this
Olyrkrgrrl
I was shocked to learn that the TESC pool would be closed -- permanently! What a tragedy for our community. Yes, budget woes...but, really? Why can we spend (waste!) so much money studying limited capacity and limited need (not a need at all, just some not local company that wants to profit from it) passenger ferry service to Olympia/DesMoines, when that same amount of money would have been useful to keep something we already have and is already proven valuable to our community. Or spending money to support FIFA, the worlds most corrupt organization besides the current white house. It makes NO sense. To close the pool permanently, is a really bad decision. Then, what will they do, have to spend more money to demolish the facility? Or close it for some years, and then have to spend more money to refurbish it from disuse? Sugggestion: Stop funding stupid things and false promises, fund things that are solid and real, and that residents already want and use. I agree with OlyBlues, that the Board should have given time for a community fundraiser at the very least. Creative thinking is required, and could be a lifesaver for both the pool and community members.
Saturday, March 7 Report this
wolfmanner
Just close this Marxist school. Make it a affordable housing for the homeless.
Monday, March 9 Report this
Chappellg
Wolfmanner obviously doesn’t know TESC. Having progressive students & faculty probably be in the majority doesn’t make it a Marxist school. Teaching thoughtful, rational discourse transcends the political orientation of any school. And besides, what’s wrong with Marxism as an option to consider in a school’s discourse. If you can’t stand to talk about a political philosophy that you disagree with, you obviously don’t belong there.
That brings us to the pool. I’m sure the water in it is apolitical & so will allow anyone from far right MAGA to far left Bernie, from Christian Nationalist to confirmed atheist enjoy its pleasant support. So why can’t we as a community find ways to repair & maintain the pool before they drain it for good!
Tuesday, March 17 Report this
Mjs1976
There was a time i saw a benefit of the pool. Many people are right as it pertains to the swimming lessons all of my nephews and my niece all took swimming lessons from there. I am just about 50 and i am not going to lie my first 18 years of life here in Olympia i didnt give the college much thought of course back then the kind of crap that the college produces now didnt exist. Its not a place or higher learning, its not a place where knowledge is traded and passed its a joke and one that isnt even slightly amusing. Its a drain on our state and a embarrassment on Olympia and Thurston County. This crap that is learned there has no real value. People that earn degrees there are not out making our country or our world a better place. It reminds me more of a terrorist training camp for socialist's that try to pass themselves off as Democrats or Liberals. I dont identify as a democrat or a Republican because honestly i dont think either party is all that concerned about any of us. Politicians today mostly only care about there "Legacy". Most fail to live up to a single campaign promise they just continue to feeding our over bloated local municipalities, state government, and federal government. By the way if you haven't noticed government is failing us on every level. We are the ones being forced to feed it even though a lot of us can barely feed our families and ourselves. Our piece of crap Governor is even worse as a governor than a as our AG. Our state is pretty much broke yet we have all this tax coming in from Marijuana industry, we still have huge tabaco and alcohol taxes our gas and diesel taxes are some of the highest in the nation and nobody is asking any of the crooks running our state where the money is gone. Instead what we get is we have to raise taxes we need more money. Screw the pool the stare has been funding this domestic terrorist training facility illegally for long enough. The facility should be offered to be taken over from a credited college or **** down. There was a time when our state had the most beautiful highways in the country. Where our state crime rate didn't make you question when you are getting ready to leave your house for the day i wonder if i should pack the 9mm or the 45 today because im heading to the westside or downtown. I remember when the police used to actually serve and protect not target and ticket because you drive a vehicle that says you can probably afford it. This state has become a reason to want to leave this country and honestly we haven't had a decent governor since Booth Gardner. Turd Ferguson and the new AG doesnt want to turn over our voter registration rolls for one reason and one reason only because they show voter registration fraud on every level possible probably going back to Christine Gregoire when they first figured out how to cheat the polls. Our state used to a nice place to live and raise a family, a place you could find a decent job out start up your own business. Now its drug riddled young people perfectly capable of working for a living but instead rob every business they walk into blind. We are asked to be tolerant and told we cant protect the people we work with or the patrons visiting these stores. The police are told by the mayors of our cities to not book these people. Its driving away small business that were once part of the very fabric of our communities. The people that have been supposedly chosen to lead our cities don't give a damn about the the people or the businesses that they are charged with leading. So my question to everyone is this when as residents of this state are we going to ask where the hell has all of the tax money from the toll bridges the fuel taxes the pot the sin taxes on soda and every other thing any single one of us enjoy doing or consuming where has all the money gone. The pot tax revenue alone was sold to all of us as a tax revenue stream that was going to fix a lot of things to date i dont believe its fixed anything. Its time ad citizens or this state and country we hold these politicians accountable and we start putting in place citizen oversight committees that monitors how our state is using our tax money its time out state follows federal law because while this is Washington state it resides in the United States of America. Screw the pool screw the college. Until our state follows the rules it set forth on Evergreen State College and closes it down as citizens we should be suing the AG and The State for wasting our money on when it hasn't maintained its mandatory enrollment for a long time.
Wednesday, April 15 Report this