READERS RESPOND

THE ISSUE: About $600,000 has been raised of the $1.5 million needed for

new aquatics complex.

What do I think the district, city and Take a Plunge Campaign should do

to raise the remaining million? You have got to be kidding.

We are frustrated and feel betrayed by the city.

Our daughter chose to go to Huntington Beach High School over Marina

because of the first-class Model United Nations program. She also chose

to enrich her high school experience by joining the swim and water polo

teams. When she was a freshman, we began supporting the efforts of Tom

Shaw and his committee to make this needed pool happen. Continually, we

were given the impression by the city that if we reached our goal, it

would happen. The city and the district supported and backed all that the

Plunge foundation did.

My daughter, four years later, is now a senior. She is finishing her last

season of swimming and water polo after zigzagging dangerously across

town from Marina to Golden West to Edison to Fountain Valley at extreme

hours -- as early as 5:30 a.m. and as late as 9:30 p.m. on some school

days.

The other schools in the district have students who practice immediately

following their classes, allowing them time to study and conduct normal

lives. We have not had this opportunity, and we have been conducting a

successful fund-raising campaign, earning the money we pledged to build

this pool.

Now -- nothing. No support. No reward. And the entire community has been

lied to and deceived through news articles stating how the pool is ready

to be built. Who and how shall we raise the remaining million dollars?

I’d say it is up to the city because it will be a city pool, for city

use, benefiting the citizens of the city. It will most certainly not

benefit my daughter who, along with all of her teammates, worked

jog-a-thons and helped Tom Shaw move forward on the fund-raising.

Huntington Beach is a great city in which to live, but something is

definitely going awry. The city must pitch in and pay the remaining

portion. Our city is blossoming everywhere -- except in the high schools,

except for our youth. What does that tell you about our priorities?

Look at Mission Viejo, Irvine -- did they have to privately fund their

pools?