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Push is On to Save Four Seasons Pool in Moundsville

Photo by Alan Olson Moundsville City Council members Allen Hendershot and Judy Hunt weigh in on the Four Seasons Pool.

After a recent push by Moundsville’s new city council members to re-examine the Four Seasons Pool as a viable financial entity while examining measures to save costs, residents and users of the pool have spoken out against the proposed closure.

Councilman Phil Remke, who began his tenure on council as a result of the election last year, presented his opinion in the first meeting of the new year. He said the Four Seasons Pool represented a massive financial burden on the city, as subsidies required to keep the pool in operation totaled $217,468 annually, according to a recent financial report.

However, in 2016, the council voted to keep the pool open, as the indoor pool served an important role for many, not just within city limits but from as far away as Woodsfield and elsewhere in the Upper Ohio Valley. Student athlete Ashley Postle, a member of the John Marshall High School swim team, gave a tearful defense of the pool, pleading with the council to keep the facility open. She said hanging at the pool helped open social doors for her.

“I used to be the kid that everyone picked on, that nobody accepted,” Postle said. “And when I joined JM’s team, nobody questioned me, they took me right in and treated me like a family. I’ve been swimming since I was 7. When you take away that pool, you’re not just taking away part of the community — you’re taking away my future career, my friends I see every summer that I can’t see, and you’re taking away my home.”

Her mother, Miranda Postle, head coach of the Bishop Donahue High School swim team and coach for the Marshall County swim team, also spoke in defense of the pool.

“You see the pool in dollars and cents, you see the pool as bleeding us dry,” Miranda Postle said. “This pool is a public service, that’s what our public service fees should go to, is the upkeep of this pool. You see dollar signs, while I see a 5-year-old girl who jumps up and down and cries because she jumped off the diving board for the first time and didn’t drown.”

Miranda Postle said the Four Seasons Pool sees dozens of swimmers from the county’s various teams, many of whom go on to the West Virginia state tournament every year.

Without Four Seasons, the only indoor pool in the county, no winter practice could take place, with other indoor pools in the area belonging to rival schools.

Additionally, Postle said the possibility did exist for John Marshall to construct its own swimming pool, but pointed out that they had been planning such a project since she was a student there.

On the council, Mayor Gene Saunders reinforced Miranda Postle’s view that the pool does not exist to turn a profit, and operates on a very limited budget compared to other city facilities.

“The pool runs on a very limited budget — it’s not like the other departments, they only have one full-time person. Everyone else is part-time on minimum wage,” Saunders said. “The director’s started some things, and there’s fundraising events every month for this year. It’s not like they’ve got money to play with. … It’s going to cost money whether we choose to run the pool or shut it down.”

Judy Hunt, who also began a term on council at the start of the year, agreed that the city should continue to subsidize the pool as a public service for as long as it can.

Councilman Allen Hendershot, however, pointed out that the contractual payments from John Marshall do not cover the cost of hiring lifeguards for their swim practice, to say nothing of the actual time they rent the pool for daily practice, which could otherwise be used for parties.

Hendershot added that the financial report Remke quoted for his figures indicated that Moundsville was in a deficit, only maintained through a previous surplus, and that steps needed to be taken to stem the negative cash flow in general.

“We can’t just expect to continue subsidize, when we know we’re in a deficit budget,” Hendershot said.

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