We, the undersigned residents of Vero Beach and Indian River County urge the City Council to abandon plans to shut down the pool at Leisure Square, Vero Beach’s only pool.[1]

We call on the City Council to recognize the public service the pool provides by hosting and promoting:

• Special Olympics Swim Meets
• Senior citizen swim classes
• Summer programs for children of working adults
• Child and adult swim classes, which in turn support local swim instruction businesses
• Water sports such as underwater hockey
• Opportunities for swimming by community members, including disabled persons, without a pool of their own
• Personal wellness and family engagement for community members through exercise classes and recreational swimming

We call on the City Council to preserve the pool for its vital role in promoting public safety. Drowning ranks fifth among the leading causes of unintentional injury death in the United States. [2] Children ages 1 to 4 have the highest drownings, with risk factors including a lack of swimming ability and close supervision. One of the best way to ensure children do not drown, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Pool Safely campaign, is to enroll children in learn-to-swim programs.[3] Community pools like the Leisure Square pool and the swim instructors who teach there provide a public safety service, a service now threatened by the council’s plan to close Vero Beach’s only pool.

In the present budget report, the city includes the slogan “The Benefits of Recreation Are Endless” and lists benefits of recreation as:

• improvement of personal wellness
• stronger and healthier families,
• enrichment for persons with disabilities,
• and enhancement of attractive resources for those outside of our community.

We, the undersigned, agree with these statements and call on the City Council support their proclamations with deeds, starting with keeping the Leisure Square pool open, indefinitely.

Finally, we the undersigned reject the false choice of maintaining the Leisure Square pool or funding the proposed skate park. We insist that the pool remains funded and plans to build a skate park proceed.

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[1] The Mayor told TCPalm that Vero Beach shouldn’t be “in the pool business anymore” Colleen Wixon, "Vero Beach closing Leisure Square swimming pool Jan. 1, building a skate park in its place," TC Palm, July 12, 2019

[2] Center for Disease Control and Prevention, "Unintentional Drowning: Get the Facts”

[3] Howard Cohen, “Florida lost more children to drowning than any state – Here’s how to change that,” Miami New Times, January 9, 2018