To the editor:

I have followed the discussion about the fate of the North Country Community College pool with interest. I am an occasional user, for recreation or for safety training. Right now, two things stand out:

¯ SEVEN LOCKER ROOMS???? You have got to be kidding! I played varsity sports in college; we shared our spaces.

¯ SURVEY RESULTS: 40 percent of the respondents find the pool hours unworkable for them; an additional 17 percent didn’t know there is a pool.

Where do these observations take me?

1. While I understand the role of college athletics in student recruitment, I feel the program overlooks opportunities to provide students and the community with lifetime athletic enjoyment. Athletics seems to translate at NCCC as an overemphasis on ball sports at the expense of sports suitable for lifetime enjoyment. A pool could be fundamental to community service as well as to recreational enjoyment. Locker rooms — not so much.

2. What has become of the excitement about developing a YMCA program here in town for kids and parents? A pool is fundamental to that, and such a program would be a huge asset to kids and families, especially through our long winters.

3. The survey makes it clear that the college has failed, at least in recent times, to develop the pool as a recreational resource for its own student body as well as for the community. Suitable hours, a vigorous program of instruction, and collaboration with other community organizations serving kids, seniors, folks rehabbing injuries, etc., could revitalize the pool.

4. We don’t have another pool in town. We can’t afford to lose this one. A lot of tax dollars, including mine, work to support it. Let’s keep it.

Thank you,

Mary A. Brown

Saranac Lake