29 April—Twenty-six years ago, just about a year after Litchfield voters had approved construction of a swimming pool—make that an aquatic center—supposedly intended for town as well as school use, a nasty spoil-sport who had been asleep at the wheel a year earlier drafted a resolution and organized a petition drive to force a referendum that essentially rescinded the bonding and effectively killed the pool—rather, the aquatic center.

Upon more careful consideration of the pool—aquatic center—in 1998, after they gave it more rational and deliberative thought, the same voters who had earlier approved the project realized that Litchfield’s varsity swimmers and residents didn’t in fact need it and the town collectively—i.e., the taxpayers—didn’t need the burden of maintenance, staffing, and insurance costs.

So that was the death knell for Litchfield’s white elephant swimming pool/aquatic center.

Fast forward to 2024. Things haven’t changed insofar as Litchfield’s varsity swimmers still use the Connecticut Junior Republic’s pool in Litchfield for practice and the Shepaug Valley (Region 12) High School’s pool in Washington for competition. And, of course, maintenance, staffing, and insurance costs are now an equally unnecessary but far more onerous burden than they were in the last century—which Litchfield taxpayers are delighted and lucky not to have.

But now that Litchfield will be joining the three tiny towns of Region 6 (Warren, Morris, and Goshen) to form Region 20, a coterie of natatory enthusiasts thinks the time is right to start the aquatic center process all over again. This time, however, while it’s still to be for school and non-school use, the project is intended to be funded privately through a nonprofit foundation. Or so they say. And for now, anyway.

As long as the Beecher Aquatic Center, as the pool complex is supposed to be called (for mawkish historic reasons, although most people around here don’t really give a damn about the Beechers these days and probably never did), remains private, it’s a fine idea. The Litchfield Monitor supports it enthusiastically. The towns and Region 20 could thus pay the Beecher Aquatic Foundation to use its facilities, as could anyone else who uses them.

But let’s see how long the private Beecher Aquatic Center can get by without sizable financial support from public coffers.

Incidentally, guess who the nasty spoil-sport who did the dirty in 1998 was. As it happens, that was the second aborted school swimming pool, the first having been back in 1974 or 1975. Ah, the good old days . . .