Second in a series
Re “Natatorium – One Man’s Crusade Against a Steady Tide”
[img]2206|right|Robert Smith||no_popup[/img]Robert Smith, the Lone but Not Lonely Crusader to bring back the 22-year-closed Natatorium from the dead, was talking about why the indoor campus pool was closed.
“From Jerry Chabola and Coach Nestor (Dordoni), there were sound dampening devices hanging from the ceiling, cloth-covered cylinders,” Mr. Smith said. “They started to deteriorate. Particles began to fall, and so did some of the cylinders.
“It became a dangerous place. The filters became clogged. All the particles falling from the ceiling and all the dirt that started to fall, overwhelmed the filtration system.
“They shut the pool down because the cost of fixing the equipment, combined with ongoing maintenance costs, were seen to be too much to make it worthwhile keeping the pool open.”
Thus the 43-year-old Natatorium has been closed for half of its history.
“I don’t know how others felt,” Mr. Smith said, “but by Nestor’s account, closing was a huge blow to the swim team and the water polo team.”
Mr. Smith, a New Jersey native who has lived here for 16 years, said that in 1991, The Plunge, the outdoors option for Culver City swimmers, “was doing okay business. The city always has subsidized The Plunge. It does not break even or turn a profit for various reasons. That was the case in ’91, I believe, and it is doing better now.”
(To be continued)
