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After the last child leaves Gallagher Park swimming pool this weekend, the dog paddling will really begin.
The Benson-area pool will still close for the season Sunday afternoon — a week early, despite an 11th-hour effort by a private donor to keep it open.
Gallagher will then go to the dogs.
The pool is booked that night for the annual “Doggy Dip,'' a fundraiser for the Nebraska Humane Society. Once the event is over, the pool must be drained for the year. So there's no way to extend the swimming season at Gallagher.
The donor agreed to an alternative suggested by the city: Keep west Omaha's Oak Heights pool open one more week, through Aug. 9.
“We absolutely do not care more about dogs than people,'' said Steve Scarpello, city parks administrator. “But the Humane Society had already changed their date once, and (the Doggy Dip) was very successful last year at Gallagher.”
The Humane Society was not asked to reschedule its event again after the donor emerged for Gallagher.
Oak Heights joins Miller Park among the city pools that will stay open another week. Earlier in the week, Hitchcock Park and Elmwood Park were saved from early closing. Private donors put up the money to keep all four pools open.
Scarpello noted that the city will have one pool open in each part of the city. “We're very grateful to the generous people throughout the city who stepped up to keep these pools open.”
He said an anonymous donor gave $5,000 to keep Oak Heights at 10205 U St. open. Another anonymous donor provided $2,500 for the Miller Park pool at 6275 N. 30th St. Omaha grocer Phil Morrison, who had offered to foot the entire bill for the Miller Park pool, will contribute the rest of the funds to keep it open.
Mayor Jim Suttle announced two weeks ago that all of the city's outdoor pools would close this coming Sunday to save money in the city's 2009 budget. The mayor is dealing with a $14 million revenue shortfall.
Scarpello said his office was contacted Wednesday morning by three donors asking how they could help keep more pools open past Sunday. The deadline for raising private money was Wednesday afternoon. Two of the donors, he said, were working through the Omaha Community Foundation.
Mike Leighton, chief executive officer of the foundation, said the donors who contacted him were just happy to keep two more city pools open.
“After we heard of the conflict with Gallagher, I went back to the second donor, and he said Oak Heights would be fine,” Leighton said. “I think that this just indicates, once again, the great generosity of Omahans.
“Had there been more time, I think we could have had all the pools remain open.”
Pam Wiese, a spokeswoman for the Nebraska Humane Society, said her group is grateful for the use of a city pool.
“We would have done whatever the city wanted us to do,” she said. “When the city decided to close the pools Aug. 2, they called us and asked us to move the event up from Aug. 9, and that was fine with us.”
The Doggy Dip, which drew 700 people and 300 dogs to Gallagher Park pool last year, is billed as a beach party for dogs, giving the pets a chance to go swimming with their owners and other dogs.
Groups seeking to keep the Hitchcock and Elmwood pools open reached their fundraising goals on Tuesday. They raised $4,500 for staffing and supplies for each pool.
Morrison, 69, said he read in The World-Herald about the successful efforts to keep Hitchcock and Elmwood pools open.
Morrison owns Phil's Foodway at 30th Street and Ames Avenue, Louis' Market at 5718 Northwest Radial and the Cubby's convenience store franchise.
“I wanted to do something for the kids at Miller Park,” he said. “We've done business in the north Omaha area for a lot of years, and I just feel like this is a way to give back.”
Morrison said he took advantage of the city swimming pools while growing up in Omaha.
“I think it's great the city has so many nice pools for today's kids to learn (to swim),” Morrison said. “I'm really just glad to be able to help.”
Contact the writer:
444-1272, kevin.cole@owh.com
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