Second in a series

Re “Eskridges Pool Their Thoughts on Natatorium”

With the imminent razing of the Natatorium, Mike Eskridge was in a sentimental mood this week.

When he made the first of his four runs for the School Board 25 years ago, his campaign centered on keeping the Natatorium open despite severe School District budget cuts.

Mr. Eskridge won.

The Natatorium lost.

The gray corpse has remained there, in an open grave adjacent to the Middle School, ever since.

Supt. Josh Arnold announced last week that after the Natatorium is dissolved this summer, a two-story science building will rise next summer, serving Culver City High School and the Middle School.

When Mr. Eskridge’s younger son Brian, at age 4, was learning to swim at the Natatorium while morticians were lining up out front, inside the legendary swim coach Nestor Dordoni was showing eager students how to fall in love with the water.

The funeral for the Natatorium has been decades in the making.

Mr. Eskridge still sounds sad when he reflects on those days.

He said that shortly after the Natatorium was declared dead for monetary reasons, “they drained the pools. Once they did that, it became impossible to get it back open.”

A myriad of problems made worked against Natatorium advocates,

“It would have to have been brought up to code,” Mr. Eskridge said. “There were two pools and only one filtration system. Each pool had to have its own separate filtration system. Everything had to be ADA-compliant, and there was a matter with the locker rooms, too.

“It just was too complicated and expensive,” said Mr. Eskridge.

(To be continued)