POOL YOUR RESOURCES

Bangor’s Dakin Pool, which lies hidden on a dead-end side street off Stillwater Avenue, suddenly has new friends now that city councilors have suggested tearing it up. The pool is modest in every respect and its bathhouse is in need of repair, if not replacement. But though it is not nearly as impressive as the shiny alternative, the new Pancoe Pool, on the west side of town, it is worth keeping at least long enough to see whether this three-fourths of an asset can be made wholly into something before being removed entirely.

Unlike the Pancoe facility, the Dakin Pool cannot easily be seen from a major road. But its scant use – falling in each of the last three years – is caused less by its location than by its condition. The pool was built in 1956 and was immediately popular – so popular, the city ran a bus from the west side of town to it, which is a council suggestion for getting east-siders to the Pancoe pool should Dakin close. The Dakin pool isn’t nearly so inviting any more; a consultant concludes its bath house is beyond useful repair.

The estimated cost for a simple, 1,300-square-foot replacement is $208,000, which is shocking. Added to that are tear-down costs, moving pool equipment, engineering and contingency fees – a total cost of $303,000. It was the combination of low attendance and high fix-up costs, says Councilor Richard Greene, that persuaded a subcommittee of councilors to recommend closing the pool.

Rather than trumpet the building of a beautiful pool (city’s share, nearly $400,000) on one side of the city while taking away a humbler one on the other, Bangor would do better to see the problem at Dakin as circular: the city won’t fix it up for such low attendance; residents won’t go while it is in poor shape.

Councilor Greene the other day suggested putting the repair project out to bid to see whether it could find a lower price. That’s a good idea. The request for proposals could include inexpensive amenities around the pool to make it more attractive for young children. The result could be an affordable, popular spot on the east side of town.

If instead Bangor were to remove the Dakin Pool and put in nearby Broadway Park a splash pad, as suggested by councilors, in four or five years the city would find itself with a request for a new pool to go alongside the pad. Councilors might recall that west-side residents quickly got tired of riding the bus to the east side. They said the city’s busing cost – between $900 and $1,000 during the summer of 1958 – was too high and there were too many people using the Dakin facility. They demanded a pool that was closer, which was built in 1964, and served until being replaced by the Pancoe Pool.

Rather than repeat history, councilors might look for more creative, affordable ways to improve the present.