20 years, still no plan — Michele Loomis

Editor,

In response to Mr. Arulappan's letter about delays (Your Voice, Jan. 5), you seem to have the facts wrong.

The Aquatic center has been in the works with a small group of citizens since 2003! And yes, I was part of that group. Surland was ready to give the city 20 acres and $20 million. We all thought we would see a pool built while our children could use it. But now our children have grown up and left the area.

So why the delays? A very small group of people did not want Ellis built, and they continued to sue the City and Surland. Instead of having an aquatic center as a place for our children to work at, provide much needed relief from the heat for families, host major swim and water polo events, which would bring money to the city, nothing happened.

Having a "real" pool for our teams to have a home would have made sense and would have kept the money in the city. Instead, many of us were forced to travel outside of Tracy, taking our dollars with us.

So if you really want to blame someone then it is the City! The City chose to spend money on the Joe Wilson pool, which is inadequate at best. It might be a good thing that the aquatic center has not been built, as this city cannot even manage the Joe Wilson pool, they would never be able to manage an aquatic center.

And all of the Ellis residents, welcome to the club, you are not the first to have problems with the current council and the city! But it is NOT Surland's fault. And nothing will ever change until we have a better council with a real plan, like we used to, 20 years ago.

Michele Loomis, Tracy

Published in January 12th, 2024 Tracy Press Letters to the Editor.

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