Plan to turn old pool into skate park questioned in Dixon

DIXON – When Steve Wilson presented his idea to transform the former Veterans Memorial Pool into a skate park last month, he said he knew it would make some people unhappy.

This week, he met some of that resistance.

Colleen Brechon and Marilyn Trulock are two volunteers who have spent years raising funds to restore the pool. They questioned Wilson during a Dixon Park Board meeting Wednesday why none of his ideas were brought to them first.

“I was personally disappointed that someone had not contacted us,” Brechon said. “There are a lot of people in the community that have worked very well for keeping the pool as a pool.”

Both were previously part of Pool Partners, a group that worked to raise funds to restore the pool Ronald Reagan dedicated in 1950. An advisory petition to fund a pool renovating failed in 2007, and since its closure in 2000, it has been vacant. Park board members say it’s starting to deteriorate.

Wilson is a co-founder of Project GenNex, which aims to develop a community youth center. He said his group hopes to get a professional engineer’s opinion of the pool facility. He’s spoken with city building official Paul Shiras about obtaining permits. And he’s spoken to Park Board officials about GenNex becoming a self-sustaining funding mechanism of the Dixon Park District.

Wilson said most of the feedback about a skate park has been positive.

Brechon – while stating a skate park near the pool was unsuccessful and has since closed – said she was disappointed that a new group was going to take “jackhammers” to the historic structure. Joined by Trulock and Frank Butterfield, a member of Landmarks Illinois in Springfield, the group urged board members to think hard about their decision to repurpose the pool.

“If you do that, it ruins it for any potential preservation at all,” Brechon said. “I can’t control what happened. If there were problems, maybe there should have been better solutions. ... I think I need to see some more facts, as I feel many in the community do.”

Brechon said her greatest fear was that the historic integrity of the pool would be jeopardized. While she believes the best use of the pool would be for it to return to its original purpose, she also is concerned that a renovation would make the landmark “unrecognizable.”

Park District Executive Director Deb Carey said that is not Project GenNex’s intent. She acknowledged that there are people who hold memories of the pool dear, but also said, “You’d really have some community action right there” in creating a youth center.

Project GenNex is still in early stages. Cost estimates and specific structural needs could be ready as early as the board’s next meeting Oct. 28.

While the project has not formally been accepted by the board, if and when it is, board Chairman Ron Pritchard said it wouldn’t be a problem for members of Pool Partners to serve on the committee that will oversee the project.

Carey said the Park District would have tried to restore the pool if it was feasible. The project is one way, she said, to make use of a property that has become problematic as it continues to fall apart.

“Nothing’s even set in stone yet,” she said.