To the Editor:

Most of the recent letters to the editor regarding the bond levy have focused on the benefits of a swimming pool and the emotional memories of Gleason Pool.

We are not against a swimming pool. We had or still do have a swimming pool. We are against the JDCCP&R meetings that have violated the public meetings law. We are against the lack of transparency. We are against the conspiracy look to the planning, plotting, scheming without any public involvement. We know that all the meetings are public, if you know when they are, but there is much that goes on behind the scenes that the citizens are not privy to. Did the John Day City Council ask the citizens if they wanted to sell the Gleason Park and Pool to the state? Why don’t the citizens have a say? Mostly because it happens without our knowledge unless you take the time to go to a meeting. Because we do not go to meetings, local authorities assume that everyone is OK with the planning.

We have supported the JDCCP&R District since its inception. This is different.

It is not our fiscal responsibility to provide anyone with a $6 million swimming pool no matter what the usage would be. Take responsibility for yourself, teach your own children to swim. There are many everyday things that parents do to teach them safety. Hunting, fishing, using scissors or a knife, riding a bicycle, building a campfire, wearing a helmet. Do you spend your own money to teach your children to play baseball, soccer, ski, basketball, hockey or ride a horse, the list is endless? Purchase a pool and fill it with the same water as a public swimming pool would be and teach your child how to swim.

Public recreation in its entirety is not profitable. You can research any recreation budget, national, state or city, and you will find the resources do not equal the expenditures. Public recreation relies upon tax dollars to balance budgets.

Swimming pool advocates, where were you when the city was talking about selling and destroying Gleason Pool beginning in about 2019? Before COVID, before a bond was even being discussed, why weren’t you standing up and speaking out? We, the people, have become a citizenry of being disengaged and disinterested in the political principles of our community, county, state and federal governments. We do not have time, do not want to be involved, do not want the negativity that comes with speaking up. 

Honesty, integrity and accountability has gone by the wayside.

John and Charlene Morris

John Day