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by Kevin Smith
Pharos-Tribune staff writer

July 03, 2009 10:40 pm

— With gas prices creeping up toward $3 a gallon and Cass County unemployment rates at nearly 14 percent, many area residents are choosing to keep their vacation activities a little closer to home this summer.
Sydney Hathaway is one resident who plans on sticking to state parks and attractions when she takes trips with her grandchildren and husband in the next few weeks.
Among her summer destinations, she said, is Logansport’s Tower Park pool because it is close to her home and is an affordable place for her grandson to swim.
“We think the park is great,” Hathaway said. “We love to see the people over here and it’s neat to see the park busy.”
Threatened with closure this year because of city budget constraints and because the pool consistently runs at a loss, early season figures show that use of the Tower Park facility is up from last year.
Manager Beth Kinsey said the pool has an average of 200 users a day so far this season compared to 128 last year. During recemt hot weather daily attendance was over 300 people with many staying for the entire day.
Carolyn Holcomb, a cashier at the pool, said a lot more families were using the pool this summer and buying more summer passes than in past years, something Kinsey attributes to the pool’s affordability and central location.
“The last week when the weather was really hot it seemed like a good place for a lot of people to go,” she said.
She added that the increase in use vindicated the city council’s decision to keep the pool open.
“I would think that the attendance that we have had and the people spending time to come and support the pool and make use of it shows that it was a good decision,” she said.
At France Park, Superintendent Sandy Heckard said numbers had remained steady this season, with perhaps a slight increase on last year’s attendance.
“We were packed Memorial Day weekend, and we planned to be packed again this weekend, too,” Heckard said. “More people are deciding to stay closer to home, so we have seen a few more local visitors.”
Looking forward to the remainder of the summer, Heckard said that the park wouldn’t be entirely sure how well it had done until the campers started arriving in mid- to late July and August.
Kinsey said she hoped the pool’s numbers stayed high and that people would come out and support its activities. Those include water aerobics classes starting next week and free admission for the whole community today.
• Kevin Smith is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at (574) 732-5148 or kevin.smith@pharostribune.com

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