By Dorothy Borchardt
Circle of Friends
1969: The North Side Community Council passed a resolution calling for a Northside swimming pool and community center.
1974: The Madison Park Commissioners recommended the mayor include a pool in his 1975 budget.
1989: A pool study recommended Warner Park and Olin Turville Park. City officials selected Olin Turville Park — without the support of the neighborhoods — a big mistake. They ended up with the Preservation of Shoreland Parks Ordinance and no pool.
1994: Madison Common Council Alder David Wallner proposed building a pool at Warner Park. A meeting was held on the Northside, and the community — including people opposed to the Olin Turville pool — were supportive of the Warner Pool. Mayor Paul Soglin supported the idea and would help raise money for it. The Northside Planning Council voted to endorse the pool and did a feasibility study to see if they could raise the money to build a recreation center and a pool. Because they couldn’t do both, the decision was made to do it in stages.
1999: The Warner Park Community Recreation Center was opened.
2004: The Warner Pool remained on hold until the Goodman Brothers offered the City of Madison $2 million for a pool. A 10-member pool committee recommended Franklin Field for the first pool and Warner Park for the second. Mayor Dave Cieslewiez put money in the city budget for the Warner Pool, and the Circle of Friends (CoF) started raising funds for it.
2008: Due to the tight financial situation, the pool was removed from the city budget. If we wanted a pool, it would have to be built without city or county funds. The CoF continued to raise funds for the pool and currently has over $190,000 in an endowment fund with the Madison Community Foundation.
2014: The name of the project was changed to Warner Park Health & Fitness Aquatic Center to better reflect how the facility will be used. In order to be financially independent, the pool will have to be enclosed and competition-sized in order to bring in swim teams, which will help cover operating costs. Our goal to provide affordable swimming lessons for all the youth in our community will not change.
2016-2017: Fundraising for the Warner Park Aquatic Health & Fitness Center is on hold awaiting a letter of support from Mayor Soglin. The CoF has proposed doing a financial feasibility study with the funds we have deposited with the Madison Parks Foundation. In order to move forward with the study, however, we need a letter from the mayor in support of the project based on the CoF raising the funds and showing the aquatic center will be self-supporting. If the funds can be raised to build the aquatic center without any debt service, the facility will be self-supporting. If the feasibility study says it can’t be done without city funding, the project it will be back on hold.
We will never know if a pool can be built if we don’t do the feasibility study. If we don’t do a feasibility study, we could miss an opportunity for an economic generator that would provide jobs, affordable swimming lessons, rehabilitation and fitness activities that will be an asset for the entire community.
We need your support, the support of our alders and the support of the mayor to move forward with the Warner Pool.