Southern Oregon ditches pool; swim club unhappy

ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) - A massive $29 million remodeling of Southern Oregon Universitys McNeal Pavilion will dramatically change the schools athletic complex. Some of that change will come from subtraction, as the architects current model eliminates the universitys pool.

The pool is not going to make it. Its not in the current program, said Drew Gilliland, SOUs director of facilities, planning, management and sustainability.

A concrete masonry and steel structure, McNeal was completed in its original form in 1957 before remodels and additions in 1966 and 1991 led to the current 120,000-square-foot facility. Now 57 years old, the mixed-use building is due to be replaced, minus the pool, with work scheduled to start next summer.

The pool was deemed not worth rebuilding or replacing, said Gilliland, because it was in bad shape and in a poor location with regard to a new Student Recreation Center that is part of the project. He also noted that SOU has no swim team and the pool is mostly used by high schools.

The decision to leave a pool out of the plans did not sit well with Cynthia Moscaritolo of the Rogue Valley Masters, a community-based swim team based in Ashland.

Moscaritolo said most of the student body does not know of the schools plans to scrap the pool. She believes it will be a big loss for the community.

It seems like the powers that be at SOU are trying hard to get rid of the pool because they dont want the hassle of maintaining it anymore, she said.

But Ryan Brown, SOUs head of community and media relations, said the decision came at least in part from direction provided by university students.

A large portion of the funding for that project is coming from student fees, and the student government through a survey asked about the pool, Brown said in an email. It doesnt get used enough, and the result of that survey was not to include the pool in the funding for the new project. A majority of the students did not favor funding the pool.

An assessment of McNeal conducted in 2008 recommended major repairs and maintenance to the entire McNeal Pavilion building, noting that the greatest concerns were fire and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) deficiencies. Another investigation in 2013 by ZCS Engineering concluded that there was corrosion in the steel columns and reinforcement embedded in the concrete walls. A second opinion confirmed the original assessment.

Read this article:
Southern Oregon ditches pool; swim club unhappy