Building character: renovating a beloved neighborhood pool on a shoestring budget taught this park's board valuable lessons in creative designing and community involvement.

When the Bloomington (Indiana) Parks and Recreation Department wanted to make over one of its city pools into a spraypark two years ago, the officials were surprised to meet with so much resistance from the community.

The 25 meter Ralph R. Mills Pool, locally referred to as the "little pool," was not attracting many swimmers. At the time, it had 13,457 steady users each year, according to local newspaper reports. To compare, the "big pool" on the other side of town, the 50-meter Bryan Parks Pool, had many more features and drew the large crowds--42,081 visitors per year.

Adding a spraypark would make the Mills Pool facility differ dramatically from the Bryan Parks Pool and, it was hoped, draw more people to the west side of town, Parks Director Mick Renneisen told the city council in June 2001. "Each can become separate attractions," he was quoted in the HeraldTimes as saying at the council meeting.

The timing for such a change was perfect. Leaks at Mills pool had been steadily getting worse. "The pool was half the size of the other and yet we were using twice as much water," says Barb Dunbar, the city's aquatics and sports supervisor. Yet costs to repair it were estimated to be in the millions. The cost of converting it into a spraypark would be significantly less.

But even though the pool wasn't attracting many users, it had a long history with its community. Built in the 1960s to give kids a safe activity during the unrest of the civil rights and antiwar demonstrations, it has continued into the 21st century serving a young "at-risk" population. For that reason, many residents felt it was a good thing that Mills Pool was considered more boring than its cousin across town.

The next time the council gathered, approximately 30 people came to the meeting to protest the spraypark idea. One man said he had collected more than 100 signatures in less than three hours in favor of keeping the pool open as-is. Another man broke into tears when telling the council that it was a bad idea to change the pool to make more money: "I want you to be careful not to put a price tag on these kids," he reportedly said. And a 9-year-old boy named Dylan made an impassioned plea to the parks board and council members: The pool was the only place he could spend time alone with his father, he said, adding, "It's very, very special and I wish you wouldn't close it."

Closing the pool was never the staff's intention, explains Dunbar; But she says the misunderstanding between the city employees and the community was providential.