To the surprise of no one, at least no one paying attention, the only swimming pool at the only college in Jefferson County was resuscitated last week, pulled from the brink of being deep-sixed.
The Jefferson College Board of Trustees voted to keep the indoor pool open and fund it for another year at least. The aging pool had been put on the chopping block as the trustees contemplated how to deal with state budget cuts.
It was saved because the citizens and taxpayers who use it rose up with an admirably grassrootsy campaign. They went to the trustees’ meetings, they wrote letters to the editor. They lobbied college administrators and the trustees themselves.
They made themselves heard, and the trustees listened. No punches were thrown.
As the swimmers explained to the board, swimming can be the last refuge for exercise for older people. After they give up pole vaulting, that is.
Located in the lower level of the college Field House in Hillsboro, the pool is open for anyone to swim for $2. For seniors, it’s a buck.
Those fees may have to go up to help raise the $85,000 needed to keep the pool open, though an increase hasn’t happened yet.
Particularly for arthritis patients, the low resistance of exercising in water is sometimes the only option they have to keep moving. And keeping moving is the No. 1 goal because once that stops, well, frequently so does everything else, like breathing.
This is the way it’s supposed to work. The swimmers made their case and were sympathetic to the possibility of fees being raised. The trustees heard the very human stories of what the pool meant, literally, to the health of those who used it. No one screamed or called the other side names. A problem was addressed, both sides were respectful and a solution was found without bloodshed. Amazing.
The Leader also reported recently about the latest round of health-related grants issued by the Jefferson Foundation, a board that is safeguarding the $154 million that Mercy paid for Jefferson Regional Medical Center, the county’s only hospital, in 2013.
The investment income from that endowment is what pays for grants aimed at improving the health of Jefferson County residents. More than $24 million has been granted.
Sadly, none of it to the Jefferson College pool.
Yet.
It sounds like the two institutions are a perfect match – the college needs a fix for the pool and the Jefferson Foundation is swimming in money. Surely an application to keep an in-county community pool going, which seniors rely on for exercise, would receive consideration.
Watching the pool saga unfold, even with its gratifying ending, made me wonder about the real reason behind those state funding cuts.
The governor has a fair amount of discretion in education funding, as former Gov. Jay Nixon demonstrated more than once. If collections are coming up short, funds can be withheld.
How about, if certain higher education institutions really make you mad?
The epicenter of education cuts in Missouri, of course, is at the University of Missouri, the site of some outlandish protests in the fall of 2015, a year after the Michael Brown shooting. The Black Lives Matter movement, supported by outgoing football coach Gary Pinkel, basically got the university chancellor and president fired. Faculty member Melissa Click became a poster girl for out-of-touch liberal academics when she called for “some muscle” to suppress the First Amendment rights of student journalists covering the protests. Click was later fired.
Our super conservative Legislature couldn’t have been too pleased with the campus protests. Now, with Nixon and his potential veto pen out of the way, they punished Mizzou this session with serious budget cuts.
Jefferson College and other institutions suffered collateral damage.
In the politics of today, higher education is suspect. It used to be something people aspired to, if not for themselves, for their children.
In running for governor last year, Eric Greitens pointedly did not refer to his education credentials, which include an undergraduate degree from Duke, an elite school by any measure, and his selection as a Rhodes Scholar, which is way more select even than going to Duke.
Instead, he ran as a machine gun-firing, heavy bag-punching macho outsider who was going to drain the swamp in Jefferson City. Oh, and he mentioned occasionally that he was a Navy SEAL.
It worked. Since his inauguration, the real Eric Greitens has shown us his dark side (and, maybe, his backside). His minions set up a nonprofit organization that can accept unlimited and undisclosed amounts of money to advance his agenda, which long-term includes being president of the United States.
With that iron jaw and machine gun, how can he lose?
All this from the King of Ethics Reform, the guy who was going to clean up the Capitol?
Considering all that, and how we were hoodwinked, is stress-inducing. One way to relieve stress would be to head to Hillsboro and swim a few laps.
It would be a win-win. We’ll all feel better and the college could use the money.
