It was indeed sad to read in the July 2 Daily Egyptian about the lack of a public swimming pool in the city of Carbondale. I’ve always thought this odd for an area with blistering hot summers, and especially so because most surrounding communities have beautiful public swimming pools.
What makes this situation particularly sad is the lack of leadership on this issue by Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole. The mayor and a few on the City Council successfully pushed through a city sales tax increase that turns over $20 million of the people’s money to SIUC to help build new sports facilities. At the same time, Councilwoman McDaniel is quoted in the article as saying that there is no money to build a pool. What’s wrong with this scenario?
Mayor Cole has blatantly ignored the plight of young people and families in Carbondale that have been starving for a place to enjoy themselves in the sweltering heat of the summer. And now that he aspires to climb the political ladder and blow out of town, he will leave the city with financial baggage for the next 20 years and only a few rows in the new stadium to show for it. Will these rows ever be filled by disadvantaged youth trying to stay out of trouble in the summer, or those just too poor to afford a ticket? Unlikely.
A free public swimming pool could give Carbondale area youth and families a summertime focus and a wonderful way to “cool off,” both mentally and physically. In addition, a pool would be a tangible community-wide resource that could go a long way toward making Carbondale the family-friendly city that I’m sure it wants to be. Any way you cut it, $20 million would buy a lot of city improvements, including a huge swimming pool.
One glance at the photo that accompanied the Daily Egyptian article is all it takes to see how a pool could benefit the city of Carbondale. It is truly unfortunate that the mayor either feels that such is not a priority or lacks the clout to get his colleagues in city government and the parks department to agree.
Michael T. Madigan, Professor and Distinguished Scholar
Department of Microbiology
