Today the kids in Beechview don't swim like they used to.

Yesterday, Pgh's City Council hosted a post-agenda about swimming pools. A post-agenda is a meeting where onlyl invited guests can speak and the public can't. And, it is a meeting where no votes are taken. They huddle without a care about any specific legislation.

The meeting was on TV, and that might have been the reason why they met at all. The meeting started 30-minutes late and went 30-minutes too long. Most of the other members of council had already left before some of the long-winded folks even came up for air.

A few bits of information was interesting and worth repeating.

A candid observation was made by Jim Motzink. He said that the kids in Beechview don't swim like they used to. They can't because they don't have a swim pool to go to any more.

The city has about 20 swim pools that are empty. There isn't any hope of putting them back in use. These are vacant properties on vital points in our neighborhoods. They are generally in prime locations. They have become maintance headaches where the grass needs to be cut, fences need to be mended and so on.

Nobody knows the conditions of these empty pools. It might take $40,000 to re-open some and $500,000 to re-open others. Right now little is known. Nothing seems to be documented. Assets are not detailed. No plan is being presented.

I'll be talking about this lack of plan today in city council chambers when I have three minutes to offer public comment.

Audio of Important Blast From the Past from 2001