Dear Members of the Menlo Park City Council,
I write to urge you to reject the plan being discussed by Menlo Swim and Sport to dedicate the whole public warm water pool at Burgess to their summer camps from the middle of June until the end of August. It would be a rare, but nonetheless very damaging misstep, by a group entrusted by you with balancing the diverse needs of the Menlo Park community.
I have respected the challenge of operating the city’s pools over the past year and the skill with which Menlo Swim and Sport has done so. I also recognize and appreciate the care the staff has almost universally shown the wide range of users of the warm water pool with physical challenges, all coming to the pool to maintain or improve their health.
I have observed, as I am sure that Menlo Swim and Sport staff have observed, that the primary users of the warm pool are those whose physical challenges are a barrier to swimming laps in the colder, deeper, performance pool. The warm water pool provides a unique opportunity for senior citizens in the community and community members disabled at birth, by a serious accident, or by illness to exercise. Weakened muscles work poorly in cold temperatures. Many use the shallow end afforded by this pool to walk slowly against resistance, important therapeutic, low-impact exercise that cannot be otherwise replicated.
If approved, Menlo Swim and Sport’s proposal would deprive a significant portion of the community access to a highly valued community resource for a third of the months when temperatures are consistently room temperature or above. During that time, senior citizens and disabled community members for whom this pool is so important for maintaining their health will significantly decondition with the consequent negative health consequences.
Menlo Swim and Sport proposes to make this pool available only before 9:00 a.m. and after 5:00 p.m. It would recognize immediately that it could not limit use of the warm water pool by a particular race, ethnic group or religious group to these fringe hours as “their share” of the time, no matter how proportional. Similarly, the Title III of the ADA requires that people with physical disabilities—be they age related or caused by an accident of birth or illness—have equal opportunity to enjoy places of public accommodation, such as the water pool.
The City Council should require Menlo Swim and Sport to leave a meaningful portion of this pool available to those with disabilities and senior citizens throughout the day this summer. As with the past year’s balancing, this would neither leave any group with all they would have appreciated nor wrongly or unlawfully deprived any of equal access as required by law.
Thank you for your concern and consideration.
Stephen P. Heymann
cc: Tim Sheeper, Menlo Swim and Sport
