POOL IN PERIL TWO YEARS LATER, SAN FERNANDO FACILITY, SWIMMERS LEFT OUT IN HEAT.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer

SAN FERNANDO -- As heat records collapsed under scalding temperatures this summer, swimmers here could only sweat -- and fret.

They had potentially the biggest and best swimming pools in the San Fernando Valley. But no two-story bathhouse. And worse, no water to cool off in.

``I'm upset,'' said David Aceves, 13, of Pacoima, an award-winning freestyler who watched his San Fernando Sharks swim team dwindle from 100 to a dozen members. ``By the time it's built in a couple of years, I'll be too old for the swim team.''

As San Fernando transforms itself into a trend-setter for urban renewal, plans to complete the Valley's first Olympic-quality swim center have stalled.

The city's $2.2 million state-of-the-art pool and water park sit empty. Its $6.4 million bathhouse and community center remain unbuilt.

The $10 million San Fernando Regional Pool Facility that city officials had hoped to finish two years ago might not be completed until the end of next year, at the earliest.

The culprits, everyone agrees, have been soaring worldwide construction costs and the scramble for extra funding. Some bids have come in as high as $500 a square foot.

But some also blame small-town infighting over the scope of an aquatic venue built to replace an old leaky pool, long since closed.

``The council put it on the back burner for two years,'' said Councilwoman Maribel De La Torre, an early pool proponent disheartened over seeing the empty holes on hot days. ``A lot of people said it was construction costs, but it wasn't. It was politics. It was viewed as one construction project -- mine -- and it hurt the entire community.''

Others disagree.

``This has been a priority from the very beginning,'' said Mayor Nury Martinez, who sits on a committee to finish the pool. ``We just had a triple-digit heat wave, with no pool. The community cannot afford to be short-changed. We want to build the state-of-the-art facility that we promised the community.''

The facility, funded mostly by state and federal grants and city redevelopment funds, will include the Valley's first year-round Olympic-size pool built to spur the speediest swimmers. Looking like a Palm Desert spa, the two-story bathhouse will also preside over a warm-up pool and water park.

This month, state officials -- who oversee a $2.7 million Proposition 40 park bond grant -- declined to allow the city to downsize the project.

The city has enough funds to complete the building, but still seeks to raise $1.5 million for consulting fees and other costs. City officials have requested funds from county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

But the county has already given San Fernando $500,000 -- more than any other recreational allocation in 10 cities -- and no more will be forthcoming, Yaroslavsky said.

What San Fernando needs to do, he said, is fill its pool with water, build a temporary bathhouse, then cut costs.

``This is a city project. They're responsible for it. They can't turn to the county,'' he said. ``I am not going to support making up a $1.5 million gap when they haven't done anything to address its cost.

``I don't believe this has to be a Cadillac bathhouse. It can be a Chevy.''

When completed, what city officials describe as a current eyesore at Cesar Chavez Park will be the region's finest swimming facility.

``It'll be not only the pride of San Fernando,'' said veteran Councilman Jose Hernandez, ``but the pride of the San Fernando Valley.''

In the meantime, swimmers have been forced to pay extra for public pools and swim areas in Sylmar, Hansen Dam and across the Valley.

``We were better off with an old pool than no pool,'' said swim mom Gretchen Halstead of Sylmar, whose daughter swims with the San Fernando Sharks. ``It's a sad thing. We are considered a traveling team, a team without a home.''

``It does stink that we can't even swim at our own pool,'' said Halstead's daughter, Katie Dick, 12, an award-winning freestyle swimmer. ``It's awkward. We've lost most of our swimmers to other pools.''

Michael Rodriguez, 16, of San Fernando -- with a fourth-place finish this month at the Southern California Junior Olympics -- said local swimmers are being short-changed.

``Some people think this isn't a swimming community,'' said Rodriguez, who now swims in Porter Ranch. ``It is. It is swimming that has given me discipline in my studies in school and in all aspects of life.''

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Members of the San Fernando Sharks swim team, top, stand in front of the pool that has been under construction for a long time at the San Fernando Recreation Center. They are, from left, C.J. Hansen, 12; Christian Cornejo, 15; Dakota Hansen, 7; and Katie Dick, 12. Above is a sketch of the proposed aquatic facility.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

Map:

San Fernando Regional Pool Facility

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