Graydon Pool 2009

     The following article is from today's NY Times. I've always liked the look of Graydon and my family spent many happy days swimming there, but times have changed. The cost of keeping this charming reminder of a simpler era just doesn't make sense in our current economic climate. The article cites the fact that there are only 3000 members, and that this number is down from 6000 in 1999. I wonder how many people were members in the 1960s and 1970s?

"When she was growing up in Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., in the 1980s, Melinda Cronk and her friends envied the kids in nearby Ridgewood for one simple reason — Graydon Pool, the languorous green park and 2.6-acre natural swimming hole that was Ridgewood’s blissful monument to suburban summers. In the year before the 100th anniversary of Graydon Park — its pool was established in 1929 — it’s easy to see why. With its sandy beach, its fieldstone walls and particularly its sand-bottom swimming hole filled with 3.8 million gallons of spring water, Graydon Pool seems like an idyllic throwback to a less hurried version of suburban life. Ms. Cronk still thinks of Graydon as a magical place. But, alas, she no longer thinks it’s a practical one. She lives in Ridgewood but does not pay the modest dues to join Graydon. And, after three years of study, the village task force she heads has decided that the only way to save Graydon is to plow it under and replace it with a more familiar symbol of summer, a blue concrete pool. The result has been an increasingly nasty battle, lawyers at the ready, pitting Graydon loyalists, many, but not all, of them longtime residents, versus advocates for a concrete pool, many, but not all of them, younger families new to town. It has turned into one of those litmus tests of modern life and particularly modern parenting. The Graydon loyalists, who have organized a group called the Preserve Graydon Coalition, say Ridgewood would betray its heritage if it opted for a new pool. “If they do what they’re planning, it would be just another thing lost to the wrecking ball of suburban sterility,” said Mark Ferraro, a lawyer, whose grandfather was a lifeguard at Graydon. Ms. Cronk said that, nostalgia aside, people in town have deserted Graydon in droves for more conventional pools in nearby towns. In Ridgewood, a village of about 25,000 people, membership, she said, had dropped to less than 3,000 now from more than 6,000 in 1999. She said surveys of Graydon members and nonmembers showed that too many people view Graydon as unsafe and unclean. Younger residents in particular want a thoroughly disinfected pool with clear waters so they can always see their youngsters. In a 2008 letter, the State Department of Environmental Protection recommended that the town change to a real pool, she said. “In its heyday, that beach was packed,” said Ms. Cronk, co-chairwoman of the Ridgewood Pool Project. “I wish it were not like this, but it’s just not being used. We’ve got to face the reality of changing times, and every path we walked down led to a bona fide pool.” Graydon’s problems, by some measures, began in the mid-1990s when the state first eliminated and then sharply curtailed the chemicals used to keep the water clean. There were problems over the years with clarity, algae and geese. Timothy Cronin, Ridgewood’s director of Parks and Recreation, said that Graydon is now as clean and clear as it’s been in the nearly three decades he’s worked in Ridgewood, with clarity of 10 to 12 feet. Still, he doubts that’s good enough for many parents. “When I drive past the schools in this town, you wouldn’t believe the number of parents who drive the children to school,” he said. “My parents never drove me to school. I took the bus or walked. There’s just a higher level of concern on safety issues now. Maybe they don’t want children walking to school because of all the articles you read about pedophiles.” Even among the parents at Graydon, there were differing views. Tanya Lee, who has lived in town for 15 years, said her four children regularly use the pool and love it. “A lot of the people who complain about Graydon never go to Graydon,” she said. But Jeanette Venizelos, a five-year resident with two small children said it was time for a concrete pool. “I grew up with a real pool,” she said. “And when people say this is a pool, I say this isn’t a pool, it’s a duck pond, a chlorinated duck pond.” There are many cross currents. Last year, a child drowned, a 14-year-old boy from South Korea who had been in the country for two days and was in a deep area he was not qualified to be in. The pool’s safety record is comparable to other pools — Mr. Cronin said he believed there had been two other drownings in the pool’s 80-year history — but the one last summer only deepened the concerns. Graydon proponents point to a modest vogue for natural pools, saying Ridgewood wants to destroy its pond just when it would be in tune with contemporary green sensibilities. Art Wrubel, chairman of the village historic preservation commission, said the commission was adamantly opposed to a concrete pool that would destroy any part of the existing pool and has drafted a letter to the council saying any changes should “improve upon Graydon’s natural and historical landscape.” Then there are financial issues — costs of building a new one or addressing dwindling revenues from the old one. Both sides say they are Graydon’s real defenders. The pool project’s report is billed “Restoring Our Village Landmark.” Advocates say a concrete pool, sensitively built and respecting the park’s distinctive natural setting, is the only way to return it to the community gathering place it used to be. The swimming season ends Labor Day, but the battle is just heating up. The council is considering a request for proposals for a new or updated pool. The Preserve Graydon Coalition plans a show of force for a pro-pond presentation to the council on Wednesday. A pro-pool group, Fix Graydon Now! — headed by a longtime Graydon member, Leigh Warren, who has reluctantly come to believe that Graydon will never lure back enough people in its current form — plans a show of force in opposition. 'I’m told there will be a police presence,' one of the pro-pond organizers said ominously." E-mail: peappl@nytimes.com