Dorothy Borchardt is a former city Alder for the north side. She’s been championing a pool in north Madison for years and hopes the city will build one at Warner Park Community Recreation Center.
Dorothy wants a beach-style pool to make it easier for seniors to use. Zero entry means you can can walk into the pool gradually, without steps. She envisions it inside the rec center, alongside the exercise room, gym, and community room.
The only Madison city pool is the Goodman pool on Olin Avenue, a long way for kids to travel to the south side by bus.
Dorothy works with a group called the Circle Of Friends of The Warner Park Community Recreation Center. As a group of private citizens, they have been working to make the Warner Park rec center pool a possibility. The group is open to many different options for owning and running the pool, including giving it to the city.
In addition to raising money to pay to build it, the Friends’ group says the pool needs to pay for its own cost of operation without help from the city.
Larry Palm is the City of Madison alder for the Warner Park area. He says that a pool at Warner Park is not in the city budget and he doesn’t think it will be.
The next step for the Circle of Friends group is to conduct feasibility studies to determine what they’d need to make the pool successful and pay for itself. Until then, Northside Madison might have to stick with the sprinkler.
Reporting for WORT News, I’m Willow Molek.
