People have favorite charities. People have things they believe in. People have an idea of what values, traits, and culture a town should have. We, the City of Plains and surrounding areas live in a beautiful valley; we have a beautiful pool and two parks. We need to believe in our community. We need to keep our town alive.

Specifically, I am referring to the E.L. Johnson Pool and Park. That pool is culture for our youth. It provides a place for swimming lessons, aerobic exercises, swim meets, private parties and youth employment. It provides childhood memories of swim team meets.

Can you imagine a housing project on that land? Can you imagine your children or grandchildren not having a place to learn how to swim, not being able to play in the park on beautiful spring, summer, or fall days, no place for kids to just “hang out?” Can you imagine an empty lifeless lot in the heart of our town? If the current trend is not altered, that is exactly what may become of our beautiful park. We are in serious danger of losing our pool. We have lost our tennis courts, now it is the pool. What’s next?

Please contact the City Hall, your city council members, and everyone else you know and voice the need and desire to keep that park alive and available for good, wholesome family entertainment and outdoor fun.

The Committee for Safe Swimming is and eight member, 5013c group that was created in 2002 by community folks who, with your generous financial help, funded and grant raised $100,000 in an effort to save our pool from closing due to a faulty heater, pump, and cracking cement. We are again in crisis mode. CSS and the Plains community must work together over the next couple of months in order to preserve our pool and park for the entertainment of all.

In the months ahead, we will be conducting fundraisers in an attempt to once again save the pool. The sand filter is failing, among other issues. Please familiarize yourself with the problems the pool is having and help us save it. Come to City Hall meetings. Make your voice known. This year, I urge you to prompt any organization that you have membership in to make the E.L. Johnson pool their community project. Let us band together and save this vital component of our community.

As Charlotte Buljung, owner of the Dew Duck Inn, so eloquently stated, “The pool is one of the things that makes this town so alive.”