Our new multi-million-dollar swimming pool lies empty. Plagued with serious problems from its inglorious opening day, it has now been revealed that our pool has been leaking about 10,000 gallons per day for approximately a year. No wonder keeping the chemical balance has been such a challenge. What would your water bill be if you were using 10,000 gallons per day?

The next question occurring to inquiring minds should be, where did all that water go? What kind of inevitable damage has this heavy release done? How much has been spent to correct pool problems since opening day?

Many more questions need to be answered about our pool, which has been operating deeply in the red since its first month of operation, which, in turn, has necessitated its closure for several months.

I believe the story of our beautiful new “aquatic complex” will prove to be the greatest scandal in Fillmore’s scandal rich history.

From the beginning, it appeared we may have built the wrong pool. This seems likely because it is not properly designed for swimming lesions. I thought something was wrong the day I witnessed instructors attempting to teach 52 children how to swim with floating devices, crowded into about 10 feet at the shallow end. The children’s water park area also had to be torn-up to correct design mistakes. For a brand new swimming complex, the list of serious, persistent, and expensive problems is long.

Our city manager needs to reveal the names of those in charge. We need to know, with specificity, what is wrong and who is responsible.

Remember all those promises of “taking back our city” and providing truly open government? Now is a good time to see if those Katzenjammers were serious.