Date: April 16th 2008

Here's a copy of one SOP supporter's letter to the reporters covering the meeting. Letters like this help to develop good will with the reporters which hopefully will result in more coverage of our issue. Thanks for sending it in Rick.

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-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Meyers <rwarrior25@aol.com>;
To: zachary.smith@scripps.com
Cc: kelly.tyko@scripps.com
Sent: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 3:54 pm
Subject: Save Our Pool


Dear Mr. Smith:


Thank you for your coverage of last nights School Board meeting. I have to
tell you I'm a little skeptical of Ms. Wilcox's statements, as her
assistant, Mr. Salzer seems to be opposed to School Board support of the
pool as reported by the Stuart news, whereas he is quoted as saying
something to the effect, "we are not in the swimming or pool business". I
confronted Ms. Wilcox last night with his statements and her reply was that
he said "we're not in the community pool business", she further added that
the school Board has difficulty collecting the county's share of the
financial obligation.


I then mentioned that I wasn't pleased with the manner the teachers contract
was handled, my understanding is that the teachers were told to agree or
lose their retro pay. I told her that seemed like extortion to me and she
then offered to take a phone call from me to further explain the situation.
Most recently the dismissals of the teachers at one of our Elementary
schools, without explanation has further created some distrust for me.


There are so many reasons to keep this pool, both tangible and intangible
that I hope the News will stay on top of this and hold these "community
leaders" accountable for their statements.


Please if you have a chance correct me if I have any misconceptions about
the above referenced situations. These people seem to be "politicians" first
and possibly will say anything to make themselves look good and then pass
the buck. We need to keep the pressure on them to do the right thing for our
kids and this community.


I'm not going to list all the reasons for saving the pool and the
implications of Ms. Wilcox's off the record comments to me, as I assume you
are already aware of all the teams, groups, and organizations that utilize
the pool. Maybe the county should build the Aquatics complex for community
purposes and keep the pool at MCHS for our high school teams. Or perhaps we
should close our beaches, if we don't have a facility to train our Life
Guards and Water Safety instructors, and what about all the kids and others
who would lose a place to learn to swim and about water safety. Who cares
about all the possible drownings, if we don't have a facility to teach the
skills needed. We can just put it all on the YMCA, that should be adequate.
Please forgive my sarcasm, but I very concerned about what's happening in
many areas of the community services that make Martin county such an
attractive a place to live.


I look forward to your reply.


Best Regards,


Rick Meyers