By John Kiesewetter
Enquirer staff writer

MIDDLETOWN - For 82 years, kids of all ages have jumped into Sunset Pool for a summer swim.

"A lot of people have been swimming here since they were babies," says Ashley Mays, 14, a Middletown Schools ninth-grader. "If it doesn't rain, I'm here every day."

Ashley Mays, 14, laughs as she jumps off the diving board at Sunset Pool in Middletown. (Glenn Hartong photo)

But Ashley and thousands of other residents in this northern Butler County community will need a new place to cool off next summer.

Drowning in red ink, Middletown plans to pull the plug on its two pools, Sunset and Douglass. Such decisions are also being faced by other older Greater Cincinnati communities seeing declining pool attendance and increasing maintenance costs as they battle budget problems.

"City pools are a real asset for the community, but they're also a financial drain on the city," says Verlena Stewart, Middletown's acting parks and recreation director.

"It takes a big chunk of the money to keep a pool open," says Mount Healthy Mayor George Rouse. "We looked at the expense very hard, because we need police cruisers and we need to patch potholes."

Cities have taken different approaches to keep kids in the swim:

• Forest Park, in Hamilton County, has closed its 40-year-old pool this summer, offering instead to pay half of residents' summer memberships to nearby Greenhills city pool or the Powel Crosley Jr. YMCA.

• Middletown and Hamilton, in Butler County, are relying on private contributions to keep their pool operations afloat.

• Cincinnati offers Sunday swimming at only four of 41 pools on a rotating basis with a $100,000 donation from Kroger. "We don't have money to open seven days a week," says Jim Garges, Cincinnati Recreation Commission director.

POOL GUIDE

• Cincinnati.com

• Also in Hamilton County, Mount Healthy reduced the number of operating days this summer, after considering shuttering the 3-year-old aquatic center. Elmwood Place also considered not opening the pool, but relented. North College Hill trimmed pool hours last year in a budget crunch. Wyoming has discussed how to replace its aging outdoor pool.

Says Rouse, who cut $25,000 from Mount Healthy's $155,000 recreation budget this year: "I know people like the pool, but in all honesty, we very well may have shorter (pool) hours or not open at all next year if the city can't find additional revenues."

However, pool fun isn't threatened in all local communities. Florence, Fairfield and Sharonville recently opened new aquatic centers with sprays and water slides. Newport and Covington officials say pool operations have not been reduced in recent years. Most Northern Kentucky communities are served by private swim clubs, not municipal pools.

Municipal pools remain one of best recreational bargains around. Kids pay $1.75 a day at Sunset, and $1.50 at Douglass in Middletown's economically depressed south end.

Elmwood Place and Covington pools are free to residents. Cincinnati season passes are $5 for inner-city pools, and $10 for the other pools. Kids who can't pay may earn annual memberships by sweeping and cleaning the pool, Garges says.

"Basically, we don't turn anyone away," Garges says.

Darian Tillis, 10, flies off the high dive at Douglass Pool in Middletown. (Glenn Hartong photo)

Faced with a $4.6 million budget deficit in December, Middletown City Council eliminated $130,000 for Sunset and Douglass pools. The decision was reversed - for one year only - when a trio of civic leaders pledged $45,000, and teenager Derek McMahon raised $350.

Shortly before his death in February, Middletown attorney Barry Levey asked businessmen Perry Thatcher and Bill Akers to kick in $15,000 each for the pools. They also have paid for the July 4 fireworks for three years.

Levey, 73, explained in January that Sunset Pool - built in 1922, and redone in 1979 - "was my whole existence growing up."

He also wanted to make sure kids had a safe, fun place to play this summer - a sentiment echoed by Hamilton philanthropist Ralph "Pat" Carruthers. His family has donated $140,000 for a fourth year to help operate Hamilton's four pools.

"The pools are a great place for kids to hang out," says Carruthers, whose wife, Donna, spent her childhood at Hamilton's Lindenwald pool. "If you take the pools away, you're going to have more problems with kids. It's a good investment."

Justin "Juice" McVay, 13, agreed as he swam last week at Douglass Pool, which opened in 1933 and was rebuilt in 1980. "If they close down the pool, most likely it just adds more drug dealers," Justin said.

While Garges has worried about Kroger eventually pulling support for Cincinnati's "Kroger Family Fun Pool Days," Carruthers has talked to Hamilton leaders about writing a bigger check next year for some major pool improvements. Hamilton's oldest pool, East End, was built in 1923.

"You still need a municipal pool, because there's a clientele for it," Carruthers says.

But pools aren't filling up as they have been. Middletown city pool attendance was as high as 74,000 in 1954 - compared to about 15,000 last year.

Families today have alternatives such as Paramount's Kings Island, The Beach, Sunlite Pool, improved YMCA and suburban municipal facilities, and affordable aboveground home pools.

Forest Park's decision to padlock its 1960s pool was driven more by giving residents better choices than by the city budget, says Ray Hodges, city manager.

"Down the road, we have a multimillion-dollar facility at the Powel Crosley Jr. Y. We believe very adequate alternative services were available to us, and we wanted to see if the community responded to that," Hodges says.

Nostalgia over pools makes it difficult for city officials to cut them from the budget, Stewart says. Last month, Middletown council members balked at swapping the Sunset Pool site to Middletown Schools so an elementary school could be built there.

"You have a large number of people who like to walk down to the neighborhood pool. It's like the neighborhood school concept," says Cincinnati's Garges. "But when the economy goes south, and the budget gets sliced, it becomes a challenge."

Sunset Pool manager Daniel Million says he hopes city leaders notice that more families are using the pool this summer.

"It would be sad to have a city this size and not have a pool," says Million, 21, working his fifth year at Sunset. "It would be a shame if they tore this place down."

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E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com

• Pool guide at Cincinnati.com