San Bernardino parks and pools get respite from budget cuts

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO -- A pair of city pools that were set to be closed for the summer are now scheduled to open up for swimmers looking for cool off during the hot summer ahead.

The swimming pool at Nunez Park on the Westside is scheduled to open Monday. The pool at Rudy C. Hernandez Community Center near downtown could open a week later.

The swimming pool announcement came at the end of a week when San Bernardino's parks department, which bled more than a little when budget cuts were made earlier this year and in 2008, was actually beneficiary of funding boosts.

On Monday, the City Council voted to reverse a decision made in February and retain parks maintenance staffers who would have otherwise been laid off in favor of contractors.

The council's decision negated planned layoffs for maintenance employees, and the department also hired dozens of youths to take care of city parks through a program financed through federal stimulus spending.

"We're employing them and hiring them to do something productive," parks chief Kevin Hawkins said.

The San Bernardino Employment and Training Agency took in $2.7 million in stimulus dollars to put people to work over the summer. Hawkins said that on Monday, 63 young people were hired to take care of city parks.

San Bernardino has also relied upon people serving work-release sentences at Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center for parks work, as well as volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and teens in the Urban Youth Conservation Corps to care for green spaces.

The Nunez and Hernandez pools were set to be closed as a result of budget cuts made in February, but Mayor Pat Morris and Hawkins said Friday that funds in the mayor's budget could be diverted to Parks, Recreation and Community Services to make it easier for San Bernardino residents to have a place to swim.

Previously, the city's budget only included funding to open the Jerry Lewis Swim Center pools at Perris Hill Park open this summer.

Mayor Pat Morris and Hawkins said San Bernardino residents need more than one city pool during the typically sweltering Inland Empire summers.

"The kids are out of school," Hawkins said. "We have to do something."

Hawkins said the his department also faces an imperative to hire lifeguards who have previously worked for San Bernardino pools before they find summer jobs elsewhere.

Money is tight, so the pools at Nunez and Hernandez are slated to be open only three days each week. The pool at Mill Park is expected to remain closed for the summer.

"We're going to see how much we can make this budget stretch," Morris said.

Hawkins said officials are considering a Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule for the Nunez and Hernandez pools.

Mayoral chief of staff Jim Morris said the pools are set to be funded with $25,000 that the Mayor's Office had saved for a preschool program. To keep the pools open throughout the summer, the City Council will have to approve funding shift.

The council is next scheduled to meet Tuesday Wednesday, when a budget for the upcoming fiscal year may be approved.