Hello City Council members,
First, thank you for your dedication and support of our city. We appreciate the time and effort you give to making our community a better place to live.
However, I wanted to convey my concern about the situation at the Belle Haven pool and request your support in providing greater city resources to the development of what will hopefully become a vibrant swim community there.
I have been a longtime regular swimmer at Burgess and our son Charlie grew up at the pool participating first in swim classes, and then in swim camps, and then later contributing back as a camp counselor. The programs at Burgess serve a diverse community of swimmers from infants to seniors and everyone in between.
I attended the workshop at Belle Haven on May 20. It was great to see many from the Belle Haven community show up and express their concerns and ideas for improving the situation. I came away from the meeting believing that, while there is quite a bit of interest in the pool, there is not nearly enough outreach and access being provided in the way of Spanish language and financial support, as well as in addressing childcare, transportation and scheduling issues.
I believe strongly that the city has a central role to play in addressing these issues. The pools are city assets and the city needs to continue to invest in them. We cannot expect the operator to shoulder the entire burden or to operate at a loss. I have swum in a great many pools over the course of my 65 years, both public and private, and Burgess has been run by far the best of any of them. So, besides the pools, the city also has an asset in the operator.
I also believe strongly that the city is in no position to operate either Burgess or Belle Haven pools. Before the Burgess pool was refurbished I swam at the Rinconada pool in Palo Alto, which at the time was run by the City of Palo Alto. During that time, the pool was often down for one reason or another and Palo Alto realized later, when they saw what we had at Burgess, that they wanted the same thing and they hired our operator. I have used the Rinconada pool several times since then and it now seems to be just as well run as Burgess. So we dont have to look far for confirmation of our decision of who to run our pools. I also reviewed the proposals from the RFP back in 2023 when our current operators contract was up for renewal and I dont think either of the 2 alternative operators that bid came anywhere close to offering the programs we enjoy from our current operator. Sometimes we dont know what we have until weve lost it and I dont want that to happen to us.
The Belle Haven pool community requires much more engagement and support than the Burgess pool community - its a different demographic (which my wife Dana, who has been working in the Ravenswood school district for 12 years, can attest to) - and thats something we should embrace and be proud of - and its also likely that this higher level of support from the city will need to continue even when the pool becomes more heavily utilized.
I urge the city council to allocate more city resources to partnering with our current operator to make the Belle Haven pool just as vibrant a hub for healthy and fun activity as the Burgess pool, the Belle Haven community deserves no less.
Regards,
Bob Hubbell
Dana Shields
Charlie Hubbell
1231 Woodland Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025
rghubbell@sbcglobal.net
650-224-3191
