Quarry Beach fate lingering question after rec center rejection
"THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOTES to Save the Quarry!
"And, to Stop this Tax Increase."
That's the message on the home page of saveourquarry.com, a Web site of Batavia Park District residents who were either A) Horrified by plans to shrink Quarry Beach and make it a concrete-lined facility, or B) Horrified by the idea of spending $36 million to do that and build a recreation center, with two indoor pools, in Beach Park.
Or C) Both.
On the other hand, "This was disappointing," said Batavia Park District Commissioner Phil Elfstrom - even though he felt from the get-go that it wouldn't pass.
"It was too big an issue close to this (shaky economic) time."
Sixty-seven percent of voters said "no" to the district's request.
What's next? According to Elfstrom, the park board needs to decide what to do about repairing Quarry Beach. The district contends it needs more than $1 million in repairs, and officials questioned whether it was worth spending that kind of money on a facility whose attendance has dropped 75 percent since its peak of 90,000 in 1995.
During the season, it loses about 250,000 gallons of water per day through cracks in the limestone floor, according to the district.
"The quarry has physical problems, and we will have to come up with a solution," either fixing it or developing another place for people to swim outdoors, Elfstrom said.
But "there is so much emotion concerned with the quarry," complicating decision-making, Elfstrom said.
Dan Anderson, co-founder of Save Our Quarry, said the group will keep an eye on what the district does next, and that members don't necessarily oppose having a recreation center somewhere in town. "We don't want to only have an adversarial relationship with the park district. We like the park district," he said. He suggests the district should partner up with other government agencies, such as the city, schools or county, on a rec center. Or that the city come up with incentives to entice a private fitness center to town.
The quarry was converted to a swimming spot in the 1920s, and last renovated in the mid-1990s. Fans cite its historical and natural attributes, including a limestone diving tower.
But users have complained about the temperature of the water (it does not have a heater, and relies on water from a deep well, which comes out at about 52 degrees.) Some don't like the sandy bottom, because it makes the water appear unclear. District officials say they need to have more lifeguards on staff because of that murkiness, unlike at a concrete pool.
The park board's next regular meeting is Nov. 18.