At a meeting of the Mesa Park board last month, Bolinas resident Bruce Bowser shared blueprints for a five-lane, heated, glass-enclosed swimming pool featuring cutting-edge solar technology and environmentally sound filtration systems. The presentation was part of a renewed discussion of a more-than-30-year-old plan to build a pool behind the skate park. Mr. Bowser and others expressed passion for the project but said they lacked the energy to get involved again, and they called on community members to help move the project forward. The meeting ended with the formation of a new pool feasibility committee that will seek funding and recruit new members. “I was 72 when I joined in on this project,” said Anna Gade, who led the board’s old pool feasibility committee and will continue to work with the new one. “Now I’m 82 and we are confronted with the same issues. I know the community’s support is behind this, but we need to hear more voices.” The idea for a pool in Bolinas began shortly after the Mesa Park board was founded in 1985 through a joint powers agreement between the Bolinas Community Public Utility District and the Bolinas-Stinson Union School District. The agreement allows the park board to acquire, construct and maintain facilities on the 12-acre field for recreational opportunities that benefit taxpayers and the district’s students. Mesa Park features a soccer pitch, a playground, a basketball court, a skate park and two baseball fields. The board’s first step toward a pool in the late ‘80s met a lack of community interest, said Jack Siedman, president of the BCPUD board and an early leader of the pool initiative. But when the project resurfaced in 2011, it drew overwhelming support from residents. Then-District Four Supervisor Steve Kinsey promised $250,000 for the pool, but when the committee could not gather additional funding, the project fell through. “This pool, it feels like our Gordian knot,” Mr. Siedman said. In addition to finding funding for a pool, the park board would have to staff it. Though community pools in California can elect to not have lifeguards, organizers have outlined their wish to have two lifeguards and a manager always present. The initial estimate for building the pool was over $2 million, but that’s likely much higher today, Ms. Gade said. Water is another issue. Years ago, the Mesa Park board transferred one of two water meters serving the downtown park to Mesa Park; that meter has a use limit of about 282 gallons per day. The meter would likely need to be used for showers, but water to fill the pool would need to come from another source, added Mesa Park board chair Kevin McElroy. In 2011, a survey of Bolinas and Stinson Beach residents found that 70 percent of respondents would pay for a range of membership options, based on other Marin community pool membership options. The committee determined that pool maintenance, staffing and facility cleaning could be paid for through membership funds. “We don’t want it to be a new parcel tax, but rather individuals who use the pool to pay for its maintenance and staffing,” Ms. Gade said. Ultimately, residents say a pool is a place for children to develop new athletic skills and create memories that will last a lifetime, and an essential meeting ground for residents of not just Bolinas and Stinson Beach, but all West Marin. “I was a pool rat as a kid,” Mr. Bowser said. “I swam in college competitively, which I was able to afford thanks to lifeguarding part-time.” Any West Marin residents interested in joining the new pool feasibility committee can email [email protected] Marin residents interested in joining the new pool feasibility committee can email [email protected].
This story was corrected on Oct. 26 to reflect the fact that the Mesa Park board would not purchase water from the Bolinas Community Public Utility District for a swimming pool; it is still unclear where it would source that water.