It’s hard to believe the Crook County Parks and Recreation District, which includes Prineville and surrounding areas, maintains only a single swimming pool built back when Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House. Yet it’s so, and the pool is crumbling as badly as you’d expect: The equipment’s antiquated, the thing leaks, and the deep end’s sinking. Wait much longer, and it’ll be known as the Leaning Pool of Prineville.

Fortunately, district voters will have a chance in November to replace it. They’ll vote on a pair of measures to fund the construction and operation of a swim and activity center on the site of Davidson Field. The construction measure would raise $12 million and cost taxpayers about 73 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The operating measure, a five-year levy, would cost a further 38 cents per $1,000. Both must pass for either to go into effect.

The combined rate, $1.11 per $1,000, is nothing to sneeze at, but the same can be said about what the money will buy. The new center will have an outdoor play pool with a slide, which will remain open during the summer and, hopefully, generate enough revenue to subsidize other aspects of the facility.

It will also have a pair of indoor pools and a multipurpose room, all of which will be open all year. One of the indoor pools, a lap pool, will be maintained at a relatively cool temperature. The other, to be used for therapy and swim lessons, will be slightly warmer.

Consider, by contrast, what district residents get from the Cold War-era dinosaur they use now. They get an overcrowded, single-temperature facility that’s open only during part of the year. The pool opens the day school lets out and closes the Friday before Labor Day, according to district officials. If you want to swim in December – or in early September, when the weather’s still warm – forget about it.

The park district’s proposal probably sounds familiar to voters who’ve been around for a few years. The district asked voters to build essentially the same facility in 2002, when the price tag would have been $7.5 million, and the request was defeated handily.

That’s too bad, but there’s reason to hope they’ll be more receptive this time. Prineville’s growing rapidly, and the existing pool is more crowded. Furthermore, the district, along with a volunteer group, has had more time to spread the word. And unlike last time, a site for the facility has been chosen.

That site, Davidson Park, is home to an old and beloved baseball field. While that field will disappear, the district plans to build a replacement on a roughly seven-acre site just south of the fairgrounds.

This site makes sense for a couple of reasons, say district officials. It’s across the street from an existing park, Crooked River Park. And it’s close to the high school, which would be one of its primary users. The new swim center, meanwhile, will have a display commemorating Davidson Field.

If voters turn down either of the measures in November, the district will do what it can to keep the existing pool operating. But that pool, worn down by age and heavy use, won’t last forever. It makes much better sense for taxpayers in such a rapidly growing area to spend what’s necessary to build an adequate facility they can use all year.