Measuring pool interest

Community leaders will hold an informational meeting at 7 tonight at Lincoln High School in McClellanville to gauge the public interest in building a community pool in northern Charleston County.

The group leading the effort includes St. James-Santee Elementary School Principal Chris Swetckie, who has attended three student funerals in the past four years. All of the youths were victims of drowning.

In the most recent death in May, a teen drowned in the Intracoastal Waterway near the Buck Hall Boat Landing, surrounded by friends who also couldn't swim, said Awendaw Mayor Sam Robinson.

"Each year, we lose a young black kid to drowning," Robinson said.

Robinson estimated that 90 percent of black residents in the area have not learned how to swim and said he is one of them.

Robinson and Swetckie agree that the area needs a pool where swimming lessons could be taught. Land is available at St. James-Santee Elementary and on two separate tracts along Doar Road in Awendaw.

"The biggest drawback will be the cost," Swetckie said.

Charleston County Park and Recreation Director Tom O'Rourke said his department doesn't have the money to build a facility, and constructing community pools is not something the county has done.

"It would be a tremendous cost, and I'm not so sure it's our responsibility to build that," he said.

The county has built two rural recreation sites, including one at St. James-Santee Elementary. A third is planned for Johns Island, O'Rourke said. The other site is at C.C. Blaney Elementary School in Hollywood.

"We can't do anything until we finish the three sites," he said. "There is just not a bottomless pit of money."

Even if funds were identified to build a structure, there are ongoing maintenance costs to think about, O'Rourke said. Lifeguards have to be on deck the entire time a pool is open, and chlorine costs are exorbitant, O'Rourke said, adding that a pool would not generate revenue.

Lack of funding is one reason that Mount Pleasant scaled back plans for a 50-meter pool at its Park West Recreational Facility and built a 25-meter pool instead, said Lauren Meyer, Mount Pleasant aquatics recreation specialist. Voters approved a bond referendum for the 25-meter pool in 2001. The $1.6 million facility opened in 2004.

Swetckie said a group of Mount Pleasant parents still is interested in building a 50-meter facility and that partnering with that group to build a pool in northern Charleston County could be one option.

Swetckie isn't sure where the money would come from, but said he does know how to bring the people who care to the same table.

"I can get people moving toward a common goal," Swetckie said.

Currently, he's working on a plan that would let St. James-Santee Elementary kindergartners and first-graders participate in the town of Mount Pleasant's two-week water safety program called WATER: Weaving Aquatic Training Through Education and Recreation. Students would take the course at the Park West facility this fall.

Swetckie said taking eight swimming lessons won't do much good if the students have nowhere to practice. Generally, learning to swim has been viewed as a personal responsibility, but Swetckie doesn't want to see another student die.

"I have to take this on," he said. "It's a moral call that I have to answer."

Reach Jessica Johnson at 937-5921 or jjohnson@postandcourier.com.