Glassell Pool to Remain Open Until June 2014

A miscommunication between the Friends of Glassell Pool volunteer group and the Council District 14 staff in Eagle Rock City Hall led to an incorrect item in the weekly CD 14 newsletter that Patch posted on its sites for Eagle Rock and Highland Park-Mount Washington.

According to the incorrect item, the Glassell Pool is scheduled to close after Labor Day for the first time in more than a decade because of Department of Recreation and Parks budget cuts. 

In reality, however, the pool will remain open well past Labor Day, right through until June 2014, according to Ronni Solman, a volunteer for Friends of Glassell Pool. Starting in June 2014, the pool at the Glassell Park Recreation Center would become a so-called seasonal pool, offering limited summer hours for lap swimmers, Solman explained to Patch. The facility would close after the start of school in August 2014—and wouldn't reopen until June 2015, she added.

The confusion regarding the pool's schedule arose partly because the pool was initially scheduled to close after Labor Day—but that was prevented because the City Council found the necessary funds to keep the pool open until June 2014 after Ed Reyes, the CD 1 representative who was recently termed out, proposed a motion that was seconded by CD 14's Josè Huizar.

But in an effort to raise funds to keep the pool open in perpetuity, Solman said she e-mailed the CD 14 staff a set of different letters regarding the pool's schedules before and after the City Council's decision. 

Because of an oversight, the old information containing the pool's closure after Labor Day was published in the CD 14 newsletter.

However, one piece of information remains correct throughout: Friends of Glassell Pool is still raising funds to keep the pool open in the 2014-15 fiscal year. To contribute, write checks in the name of L.A. Parks Foundation (www.laparksfoundation.org) and mail them to the L.A. Parks Foundation, 11973 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90049. Earmark checks "For the Glassell Pool." For more information, call or write Ronnie Solman at (323) 246-5653 and solm2@aol.com.