Residents rally for Alpha Aquatics
Alpha Aquatics was young, under-sized and outspent when it entered the competition for pool time at the El Segundo Wiseburn Aquatics Center.
The top-ranked team was Redondo Beach-based Beach Cities Swimming. Beach Cities has over 400 swimmers, compared to Alpha’s 130. Beach Cities is a decade old, Alpha was founded five years ago. Beach Cities’ bid for peak time use of the Aquatic Center was $160,000 per year, $30,000 more than Alpha Aquatics’ bid.
The  $14 million Olympic caliber aquatic center opened Jan. 5 and includes an Olympic size pool, a 25-meter warm-up pool, stadium seating and a jumbotron. It is located next to the new Wiseburn High School in El Segundo. Wiseburn provided the land and most of the financing. El Segundo assumed the operating costs, in exchange for which the pool will be available for El Segundo High swimmers and residents.
Many swimmers in the pool poor South Bay must drive to Santa Monica and Long Beach to find pool time.
The staff report presented to the El Segundo City Council at its February 5 meeting, ranked Beach Cities Swimming number one overall among the seven swim clubs bidding for pool time. Alpha Aquatics was ranked fifth. Beach Cities Swimming was also ranked first in “Revenue to City.” Alpha Aquatics was second.
“Based on my experience, Alpha Aquatics is still developing as a swim club. However, Beach Cities Swimming is already an established swim club team that is ready for our regional community aquatics center and will help us fund it,” former Alpha Aquatics board member and current Beach Cities Swimming board member Debra Davis wrote to the city council.
Alpha Aquatics did have one advantage over the other bidders for pool time — the home pool advantage.
A week prior to the Feb. 5 city council meeting, when the council would vote on which club to award the scarce pool time to, campaign signs suddenly appeared in hundreds of El Segundo storefronts and on home lawns. They read “Put ES Kids in the Pool — Alpha Aquatics  — El Segundo’s Swim Team.”
Alpha Aquatics supporters also bombarded the city council with letters and on Feb. 5, filled the council chambers.
“Now it is time for the City of El Segundo to show their commitment to the only El Segundo-based swim team,” wrote Eric Hoffman. He said he learned to swim when he was a 9-year-old in Burnsville, Missouri and “[My] 10-year-old son Roland joined Alpha Aquatics last June and has been having a great time and improved immensely.”
“While other teams may have a small number of El Segundo residents, we have over 70 El Segundo kids on the team. A pool built by El Segundo should primarily benefit its residents,” wrote resident Karena Liberty Gurr, whose children are third generation El Segundo swimmers at the El Segundo Plunge. “Swimming, rather than football, baseball or soccer, are [many] families’ sport of choice,” she added.
In a response to a letter from SCAQ (Southern California Aquatics) coach Clay Evans,  questioning the proposed fees, Mayor Drew Boyles explained that the city council’s responsibilities extend beyond the local swim community.
“The pool requires a significant, annual expense outlay and our city will be facing a structural deficit by 2020… We have a responsibility as fiduciaries to all constituents, not just the aquatics community,” the mayor wrote.
The pool’s operating costs are $1 million a year, according to the staff report. The 2018-19 projected loss is $194,024, declining to a negative $64,756 in 2020-21. But that assumes adoption of the staff’s recommended rate of $15 to $45 per lane per hour.
SCAQ, masters swim club that has practiced at the El Segundo Plunge for 38 years, paid $4.48 per lane per hour last year. The proposed $15 is a 300 percent increase, SCAQ coach Evans protested in his letter to Mayor Boyles.
Redondo Beach, Evans noted, charges $8 per hour per lane. Manhattan Beach charges $6.66. Torrance charges $8.12.
Alpha Aquatics supporters contended that money should not be the decisive factor.
But if money is the issue, Eric Alberson wrote to the council, then peak pool time belonged to El Segundo families.
“El Segundo and the Wiseburn School District along with some very generous donations footed the bill for this pool. Not Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Torrance, etc. Which community comes first in this equation?” he asked.
But Alpha Aquatics’ central argument was family, not financial. Albertson is a Los Angeles County Lifeguard. He received the Medal of Valor for rescuing a surfer at the El Segundo jetty on  January 19, 2001, in 52-degree water and 15-foot waves.
“In my case, swimming age group with El Segundo Recreation, and then swimming and playing water polo for El Segundo High School, afforded me the opportunity to compete for and graduate from a Division university. Maintaining the aquatic skills that began in this city, I became a lifeguard for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. After 30 years in that vocation, I am still helping to serve the city that has served me so well. I would like that path to be available to my children, as well as to the children of all El Segundo families. That path should be local to El Segundo, a town that has produced Olympic swimmers and water polo players, CIF champions, NCAA champions, and seasonal and career lifeguards,” Albertson wrote.
Over two dozen residents addressed the council at the Feb. 5 meeting, some in favor of Beach Cities, but most in favor of Alpha Aquatics.
Early on in the meeting, Councilman Don Brann argued that priority should be given to the clubs with the largest number of El Segundo swimmers and coaches. Three of Alpha Aquatics’ nine coaches swam for El Segundo High and live in El Segundo. Founding coach Octavio Alesi competed in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in the 100 butterfly and the 2012 Olympics in London in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
After two hours of comments and deliberations, the council voted unanimously to allot peak time (3 to 8 p.m.) to Alpha Aquatics and off-peak time (before 3 p.m. and after 8 p.m.) to the El Segundo-based water polo team South Bay United.
