Work begins on community pool

Construction has begun on a long-awaited swimming pool, paid for with public funds and located at California Lutheran University to serve the community of Thousand Oaks.

With construction equipment in the background, officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday and praised the cooperative partnership between the private university and local public entities.

"This partnership is how we function as an institution, working with the community," said Chris Kimball, CLU president.

The Conejo Recreation and Park District has a 30-year lease on the property owned by CLU.

"We're starting grading," project manager Bob Powell said.

To pay for the project, the city provided $1.4 million, including a $99,000 federal grant. The recreation and park district provided $1.9 million and a promise to maintain, operate and set up programs at the pool.

The approximately half-acre site is on the north side of Olsen Road, next to the 50-meter pool at CLU's Samuelson Aquatic Center.

The community pool will have seven lanes, measuring 75 feet by 64 feet, and varying in depth from 3 feet to 5 feet. The construction will include a 1,350-square-foot building with restrooms, and a 675-square-foot shade structure.

City Councilman Dennis Gillette estimated construction would take about 12 months.

Neighbors Leonard and Sharon Smith, who live in the nearby Greenridge development, were on their morning two-mile walk Friday and stopped to watch the festivities.

"I think the pool is good for the university and the community," said Leonard Smith, a CLU history professor for 29 years, who retired in 1998. "I'm a senior and looking forward to using the pool."

The facility will serve people learning to swim, fans of water aerobics, swim clubs, master swimmers and others who just want to frolic, officials said.

Speakers at the ceremony Friday said the pool is necessary to meet the demand for year-round aquatics services.

George Lange, chairman of the park district's board of directors, noted "the agreement that has created this unique collaborative effort leading to the community pool. You will hear the word community' often, as that is the focus of this project."

Tex Ward, who retired in 2006 after 38 years as general manager of the park district, described the onset of the project Friday as "a landmark occasion."

Jim Friedl, the park district's general manager, said the cooperative venture saves "a tremendous amount of money" by piggybacking onto CLU improvements such as the parking lot, lights and access to other amenities within the Samuelson center.

"Otherwise, we could never afford the pool," he said, estimating the value of land there at "about a million bucks an acre."

--- Published in the Ventura County Star on May 10, 2008