Columbia Association Straw Vote in Favor of Retaining All Outdoor Pools

The Columbia Association board voted 7-2 in support of retaining all 23 of its outdoor pools, in a straw vote during a work session, according to board member Tom Coale.

"The Board had a lot of big picture paradigm decisions to make before getting into the decision about whether or not to repurpose any pools," Coale wrote about the recap on his blog, HoCo Rising.

Coale said the Board, which met Saturday, classified the pools into three separate groups: neighborhood, community and destination pools, with neighborhood pools seeing the smallest annual visitors. He wrote that the classification is not meant to demote the importance of the smaller pools, but rather to ensure the neighborhood pools stay small for those who want their pool experience low-key.

"I went into that meeting with the mindset that none of the 23 outdoor pools should be repurposed and nothing I heard changed my mind," Coale wrote.

The Board's vote came after a task force created by the Board that the association get rid of or "repurpose" the least successful pools. The pools averaged a net loss of $2.5 million per year for the association over the past three years, according to the recommendation.

The straw vote is not an official or binding vote, however, and the Board should make an official vote at a regular Board meeting later this month, according to spokesperson Kelly Cooper.