Beach Cities Health District pools ideas for Aquatic Center in Redondo Beach
by Kevin Cody The roughly 20,000 kids within walking distance of the ocean in the three Beach Cities have one municipal pool where they can learn to swim. If they don’t learn to swim, they can never safely enjoy the ocean while surfing, diving, paddling, boating or fishing. “Swimming is a cradle to grave sport,” Steve Hyde tells swimmers he coaches at that sole municipal pool, Begg Pool, next to Polliwog Park, in Manhattan Beach. Begg was built shortly after World War II for students attending Foster Begg Junior High. It has six, 25-yard swim lanes, but lacks the amenities generally associated with aquatic centers, such as reliable showers. In 2015, The Manhattan Beach Unified School Board proposed replacing Begg Pool. “Begg Pool is not really usable,” School Board President Bill Fournell said at the time. “It’s too shallow and old and the facility is outdated.” “We’re sorely lacking in pools… It’s a requirement when you live as close as we do to the beach to know how to swim,” Earl Keegan, founder of Beach Cities Swimming, a youth club team, told the school board. The board proposed an Olympic size pool, which at $3 million, would have been cheaper than refurbishing the old pool…
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