Discussions continue on possible pool closure

Will the Mattocks Park swimming pool open for the summer of 2019?

That question is being pondered by city officials and the El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds Commission, who have said low attendance at the pool for 2018 do not justify the more than $30,000 operating budget.

Repairing deteriorating equipment would also be cost-prohibitive, they said.

Mattocks Park and its swimming pool were among several stops the commission and city officials made during a tour of city parks earlier this week.

The commission conducts the annual tour to assess the condition of city parks and to evaluate their needs and areas for improvement.

After lunch in the pavilion at Mattocks Park, the group made its way up the hill to the pool, circling the perimeter outside the fence before ducking into the pool house to get a closer look at the pool, the pump system/room, concession stand, restrooms and other amenities.

During the tour — which included Mayor Frank Hash, El Dorado City Council Member Billy Blann, City Clerk Heather McVay and city Parks and Green Space Manager James Lewis —, commissioners delved deeper into a discussion that has been ongoing for months.

Pool

Mattocks Park is home to the city’s only public swimming pool and fishing pond.

The pool has served the community for nearly 65 years, having opened shortly after the land for Mattocks Park was deeded to the city by late El Dorado resident Cornelia Mattocks.

Mattocks approached the city council, first in May 1952 and again in March 1953, and gifted to the city property deeds with land totaling 15-plus acres in the area of Detroit and Sharp.

With her gift, Mattocks specified that the land “be developed … as a public park and playground for members of the Negro race.”

The park was to be named Mattocks Memorial Park in honor of Mattocks’s late husband, P.R. Mattocks, and it was to be “perpetually maintained by the City of El Dorado, its successors or assigns.”

A sign detailing that history sits at the corner of Detroit and Sharp, and Lewis said the city is looking to make some adjustments so that the sign is displayed more prominently.

While watching several residents

round the walking track at Mattocks Park on Oct. 23, parks and playgrounds commissioners and city officials agreed that the park is heavily used and well-looked after, not only by the city, but also by the neighborhood that surrounds the park.

But they also questioned if the pool gets as much use as the other amenities in the park.

Low attendance

The Mattocks pool traditionally opens on Memorial Day and closes a couple of weeks before the start of the fall semester for local schools in August. Admission is free. While reviewing the 2018 financial statements and bills for the pool last month, commissioners homed in on the $30,065 cost to hire three lifeguards for the summer.

“I think attendance dropped off. There were days when there were half a dozen kids there. It’s hard to justify spending that much for lifeguards,” said Ken Goudy, chairman of the parks and playgrounds commission.

Reports of average, daily attendance varied wildly from 112 swimmers to “five or six” for the 2018 season.

The Rev. Ray Johnson, who recently retired as city sanitation supervisor and had served for years as manager of dayto-day operations at the pool, cited the 112 average.

“There was an average of five people a day, and we’re spending an average of $1,500 a week to operate the pool,” Hash said. “(Director of Public Works Robert) Edmonds and I made it a habit to come over here every day.”

In a longstanding partnership with the city, LanXess, formerly Great Lakes Chemical Solutions, donates the chemicals that are needed to operate the pool each year.

The city drains, repairs and cleans the pool in preparation for its latespring opening.

“If Great Lakes did not provide the chemicals, there’s no way that pool would be open,” Hash said.

Ongoing problems with the pool’s sand filters make operations more difficult, the mayor said.

“They work. You just can’t open them to clean them they’re so rusted. It’s been a problem since I’ve been mayor,” said Hash, who is nearing the end of his second, fouryear term.

Worsening matters is the poor condition of the pool itself.

“The bottom of the pool has deteriorated. We patch it and patch it, but it just won’t hold. I’m sure there are some leaks out there,” Lewis previously told commissioners.

Hash noted that pool attendance is up during special events, such as the annual Juneteenth celebration at Mattocks Park and El Dorado Days, a biennial homecoming celebration for former and current El Dorado residents. El Dorado Days was held earlier this year.

Sentimental and historic value

Since the parks and playgrounds commission’s last regular meeting in September, Commissioner Alexis Alexander said she had heard from “one gentleman,” who expressed concern about possible closure of the Mattocks pool.

“He said it’s a part of his childhood, and many of the people who come home for El Dorado Days were lifeguards at the pool,” Alexander said. “That’s the only feedback I’ve gotten. It’s just not economically feasible.”

Alexander asked if the pool could remain open for one more year, and neither the commission nor city officials provided a definitive answer.

Hash pointed to Johnson’s retirement, saying, “That’s one thing we won’t have, and I know he put a lot of his personal time into it.”

Johnson said previously that he agreed to continue on as the pool’s manager after having been asked by Edmonds to do so.

Alexander also inquired about the restrooms inside the pool house, asking if they could remain open and accessible to the people who use the park if the pool is closed. Hash said yes.

He also emphasized that the Murphy Arts District Playscape will be deeded to the city and operated and maintained by MAD.

The arrangement is specified in a purchase-lease agreement, in which MAD used El Dorado Works tax dollars to purchase the property, with the caveat that the property be deeded to the city once it was developed.

“You’ll have a first-rate facility and it’ll be free, just like the pool,” Hash said.

City officials are working with MAD to hammer out details that recently cropped up when MAD asked for a $2.2 million reimbursement for construction cost overruns.

The history and origin of Mattocks Park and the pool and their value to the community have not been lost on Janice Bush, president of the El Dorado-Union County branch of the NAACP.

Bush noted that Mattocks Park is the only city park “where you can sit down and have a picnic, swim and go fishing.”

“(The pool) should remain open and maintained. There are not a lot of places where you can go and learn how to swim for free,” Bush said. “Not everybody can afford to go to HealthWorks (Fitness Center).”

“What is the urgency in closing down the only free pool in the city that is open to the entire city?” Bush continued. “Why would you want to do that in a city that you’re trying to grow? It can really be a showplace. I just think they’re not using all of their resources.”