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| The Glen Maury pool awaits summer crowds. (MICHAEL WHITE/The Rockbridge Report) |
"BV Beach” may be all washed up.
Glen Maury Park’s popular swimming pool – or “BV Beach,” as it’s fondly known to locals – might miss its first summer since opening in 1978. As Buena Vista City Council looks to cut costs in a bad economy, it is weighing whether to close the pool, which costs $17,000 a year to operate.
And some residents, including Parry McCluer Middle School guidance counselor Laurie Armstrong, are upset.
“I just can’t imagine life without that pool,” she said. “It’s where a lot of us had our first jobs.”
Armstrong worked as a lifeguard at the Glen Maury pool as a teenager, and now takes her daughter Allie, a student at Parry McCluer Middle School, there each summer. Armstrong said the pool provides a great place to catch up with friends and relax, because everyone’s there.
But pool-goers argue there’s more to “BV Beach” than just nostalgia. They say that from Cub Scout summer camps to road-tripping tourists, the pool, which receives an estimated 4,000 visitors each summer, boosts tourism for the town. Additionally, the pool employs several students from Southern Virginia University as lifeguards. It has a concessions stand and is one of several in the Rockbridge area.
Ronnie Coffey, Buena Vista’s director of parks and recreation, said Glen Maury Park has 52 campsites, tennis facilities, hiking trails and fishing areas, all of which are on track to stay open.
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| The pool has opened every summer since 1978, but might be forced to close this summer because of pending budget cuts. (MICHAEL WHITE/The Rockbridge Report) |
“Glen Maury gets a lot of RV campers coming through each year, and I think it would be a deterrent if the pool wasn’t there,” he said.
In the past, the pool opened like clockwork each Memorial Day weekend to a huge crowd. But according to Coffey and the City Council, a bad economy has had the local government debating whether the local landmark might be a casualty.
City Council is scheduled to continue mulling the budget and the Glen Maury pool’s fate at its meeting tonight at 6 p.m.
The pool needs resealing, has a hole in the diving board, and it needs new paint – a total of about $2,000 in repairs. That, on top of the $17,000 annual operating cost for the facility, makes it a prime target for budget cutting, Coffey said.
But he said that even if the pool does miss a summer, it won’t be the end. When the city has more money on hand, he said, he is sure “BV Beach” would come back to life.
Meanwhile, Kimberly Thompson, Buena Vista resident and Rockbridge County’s recycling coordinator, said she wasn’t going to wait around. She said she’s starting a petition to save the pool.
“We need that pool,” Thompson said. “There’s a lot of stuff they could take away, but the pool shouldn’t be it.”
Produced by
Washington and Lee
journalism students.
Lead Supervisors:
Prof. Brian
Richardson
Prof. Indira Somani
Editing supervisor:
Prof. Lisa Tracy
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd