Where it all began!
I am Jennifer M. Jones, Chairwoman of the RTHMPC Project or otherwise known as the Bobby Henry Memorial Pool Restoration Project - BHMPRP. Since last summer, June of 2007, a lot of things are happening relating to our City of Greenville, MS Pool. It all began, when I signed my grandkids up for swimming lessons and quickly realized that this pool was in dire need of help and attention, to save it. Budget cuts, neglect, lack of promotion and apathy had put this grand old landmark into a crisis situation. Knowing the importance of learning to swim and the fun that comes from swimming, I had to take some kind of action to put this pool back on track. I enquired to the Park Director, the Pool Director and even the Park Commission. The future of this pool was questionable. With little usage by the community, inevitably, if things did not change, this rare Olympic size pool would be lost, just as others in the community had been before it. This was unacceptable. With only goals of promoting community awareness , maintenance and repair at first, I sought out help to restore this pool for now and future generations. I was met with a lot of negativity and apathy. Most felt it was a lost cause, others had no idea it was even still open or worse, existed! So, with that in mind, I began a campaign to educate the public, through articles referring to the pool's issues and an e-mail campaign to my local City and Community Leaders, as well as friends and fellow Greenvillians. By early fall, the City of Greenville, Mayor Heather Hudson, hired a Grant Writer, Gloria Traylor, to help find funds for the pool and any other needy areas or departments of the city. My efforts had succeeded in getting the attention of the City for the many grants I had shown were available to save this pool. Gloria immeidiately went to work on finding funds through grants and organizations. This was a big step for the pool's future. Gloria is dedicated and a hard worker for the cause. As a City staff member, a fellow citizen and a mother, she saw the real need to save this pool, as well. We make a great team! Later that fall, during campaign time for State offices, I was lucky enough to meet our District Representative, Linda Whittington. Once hearing of the pool's plight and the importance to the community to save this pool, she took steps and connected me with the Carl - Small Town Center - Arts & Architecture Dept. of Mississippi State University, http://smalltown.sarc.msstate.edu/. With the help of the staff, Professor John Poros and his assistant Cari Varner, City Grant Writer- Gloria M. Traylor, we, the City of Greenville applied for the CSTC Grant of assistance to our community. With the data and community input submitted in the value of this project by Grant writer, Gloria and with my assistance, our project was chosen out of a competition with two other unknown communities. This was the second big step to a better future to our City Pool. Since then, through articles in the local paper and local TV coverage, the community has been informed of the progress and grant awards. The excitement has begun with a recent visit from the staff and students of the CSTC. On January 11th and 12th, the group researched and assessed our project for their future prospective designs to fulfill the needs of the Pool complex area, including the Buster Brown Community Center and surrounding land areas. In a few weeks, the students will complete their designs and return to our Committee to have us review the options. Once a choice is narrowed to the direction we would like to go, a final design and 3 D model will be presented to the City. With this in hand, we hope to qualify for millions of dollars of grant monies to accomplish this project. Fundraising, donations, contributions of dollars or "in kind" will be needed to meet the CSTC grant requirements that this community invest in this same commitment to this pool. On January 15th, I presented the proposal to the City Council for their support in the endeavors to come. The Council voted to get behind this worthwhile project......and so it begins! |
