A New Pool For Hamilton....and Wenham?

Over fifty years ago, the American Legion provided our towns with a gift that has served us very well…a swimming pool at Patton Park. Hamilton town officials are telling us that the pool is leaking and is not repairable.

The majority of the Hamilton Selectmen is forwarding articles for the November Special Town meeting to gain citizen approval to proceed with a new pool complex.  The plan calls for spending more than two and a half million dollars on this project. Over the last year, estimated costs have risen from one million dollars and will likely go higher before we meet as a town on November 4th.

Hamilton’s tax-funded Community Preservation Act funds have been identified to pay for the costs. At the November Special Town Meeting there will be two items calling for your approval.  One to permit the Selectmen to go forward with the pool and another article to gain use of the CPA funds to pay for it.  As currently structured, we would drain $540,00 from our CPA savings right away, and $200,000 per year for up to twenty years to pay off the principal and interest of a bond.

We in EiE support the idea of a pool.  But, are they kidding?  This much money for something that is used ten weeks a year? Don’t we have more important things to do?

CPA funds can be used for Senior Housing, to renovate town hall, to improve downtown.  The pool project would reduce our CPA funds by a nearly 1/3, and will take away nearly ½ of future expected tax income into the fund for many years to come.

Another way to look at the proposed cost is that this is enough money to purchase two or more beautiful homes, each with a large lot and pool.

We need your help at the Special Town meeting to put the brakes on yet another out of control spending spree by some of our Selectmen.  Reasonable voices need to prevail.  We can have a pool without breaking the bank and preserve money for other uses.  After all, it’s called the Community Preservation fund, not the Hamilton Recreation Fund.

EiE believes the following steps must be taken before we say yes to a pool:

1. We need to go back and further study the Hamilton-Wenham Recreation Master Plan's Gale report of a year ago that set the cost of a new pool at 1.1 million dollars.  How things can change in a year. 

2. We need to wait until our partners in Wenham have time to commit to participation in the pool as they have done with many joint efforts in the past. About 1/3 of the current pool users live in Wenham.  The Wenham CPC committee has voted “Not to support the pool project as now presented”.  They want to see definitive plans for a more modest pool.

3. Private fundraising should be established and underway, similar to what was done with the playground.

There is no need to rush a decision at Fall Special Town Meeting.  This is NOT an emergency need. We can extend the use of the existing pool, or utilize the many other community resources available for summer swimming.

We urge everyone to attend the special town meeting on November 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the regional high school.

We need to support reasonable thought and planning.

Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully submitted,

EiE Steering Committee

Robert Sica, Bruce Wadleigh, Jack Hauck, George LaMontagne, Bea Britton, Jay Burnham, Ed Howard, Jim Kent