The University of Georgia hasn’t given state preservation and higher education officials any evidence that closing 77-year-old Legion Pool and building a new one will save money.
UGA plans to demolish Legion Pool and spend $2.6 million on a new pool near Lake Herrick rather than spend $490,000 renovating the existing pool. Documents submitted to the state Historic Preservation Division and the University System Board of Regents’ agenda for Aug. 8, when the board will take a preliminary vote, don’t include any operating or maintenance figures that would justify spending five times the cost of renovations on a new pool.
“The University has concluded that Legion Pool’s physical obsolescence, including compromised structural conditions that contribute to significant daily water loss, warrants the demolition of this recreational facility,” UGA Director of Design and Construction Paul Cassilly wrote in a June 26 letter to the HPD. “… Renovations have occurred periodically over the pool’s nearly eight decade life span to update drains, filters and other equipment. The last renovation approximately six years ago re-patched and refinished plaster sections along expansion joints.”
It’s unclear, though, whether UGA would save any money in the long run by opening a new pool, as opposed to renovating the old one. Several administrators were unable to provide specific figures by press time.
Legion Pool is well past its 50-year lifespan, and officials have been discussing replacing it for over a decade, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Planning Danny Sniff says. The leaky pool ran up a $25,000 deficit in 2011, and the water bill alone is $10,000 a year, spokesman Tom Jackson says. But UGA hasn’t justified the project in terms of cost or its master plan for growth, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer David Crass said in a July 31 response the pool plans.
“The photographs provided do not demonstrate conditions of severe deterioration or existing repair needs,” Crass wrote. “The narrative indicates renovation costs of $490,000 but provides no context, including why it has been determined to be a not cost-effective candidate for repair, and considering reference to future construction of a pool elsewhere on campus, how repair costs compare to the cost of the replacement facility. No context has also been provided regarding why demolition of a historic resource is consistent with the campus physical master plan and the post-demolition use of the site as green space has been determined its ‘highest and best use.’ Additionally, no information has been provided regarding alternatives considered to retain Legion Pool and why demolition was considered the preferred alternative or other alternatives were considered not feasible.”
Crass offered to help find an alternative to demolishing it, but the HPD’s findings are nonbinding, so UGA is under no obligation to take him up on the offer, says Amy Kissane, director of the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation.
Athens residents are organizing to oppose the demolition, citing Legion Pool’s historic status as one of the few remaining Works Progress Administration-funded pools in the country and its role as a community gathering place. “It’s a beloved community institution,” says Sara Baker. “Generations of Athenians learned to swim there.” Baker and others have set up a Friends of Legion Pool Facebook page to share memories and an online petition signed by more 700 people. Opponents are also consulting with lawyers.
UGA is open to input on the fate of Legion Pool, Sniff says. “It will require a discussion to address not only the [concerns of the] state historic preservation office, but also the local community,” he says. The institution will listen to concerns, as it did with Rutherford Hall, the historic dormitory that was torn down last year, he says.
Although officials have been discussing replacing Legion Pool for years, the decision caught the community by surprise, perhaps because the pool is shown on the university’s future development map. Another issue for preservationists is UGA’s lack of a legally-required plan for historic preservation. Administrators believe they’re such good stewards that they’re in compliance with the law without such a plan, Sniff says. Because the UGA campus is on state-owned property, Athens-Clarke County historic preservation laws don’t apply. “With this, my personal opinion is I don’t know if there’s a position at the table for our county government, other than as individuals,” says Commissioner Kathy Hoard, who represents part of Five Points.
A final Board of Regents vote could come in September but more likely at an October meeting in Athens, university planner Lara Mathes says. Before the final vote, university officials will do a cost-benefit analysis.
If demolition proceeds, UGA plans to build a new pool that’s half the size at 6,000 square feet but includes more modern amenities. It will be designed to attract more students who aren’t using Legion Pool; most swimmers there are faculty and staff, Sniff says. Total attendance fell from 22,306 in 2007 to 16,067 in 2011, and students dropped by more than half, from 2,769 four years ago to 1,173 last year, according to Jackson.
University officials did clear up one rumor: The new pool would be open to the public. UGA will continue its Friends of Student Life program that allows the general public to buy pool passes, Vice President for Student Affairs Rodney Bennett says. “Once the proposed pool has achieved all necessary approvals, the University will be able to offer additional details about new pool operations,” he wrote in an email to Flagpole.
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