Purging pool problems

Scott Van Winkle

Thursday, April 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

It must have seemed like a good idea at one point, but neighbors of a small community pool in a northwest neighborhood say they're now glad to have a vacant lot in its place.

The pool on Upland Boulevard was left to vagrants, runaways and other riff-raff several years ago, neighbors said, gradually filling up with debris rather than water.

Jaz Fowler, who lives across the street from the pool, said a group of delinquents would gather there to drink, skateboard or just hang out until the wee hours of the morning.

Fowler said her windows have been destroyed by beer bottles and racist graffiti has been scrawled along her front wall.

She called police about disturbances at least 20 times, she said, but was told they could do little other than file a report. The group of about 15 to 20 pool squatters got back at her for calling by painting graffiti or throwing bottles, she said.

"I got up this morning and saw they were tearing it down, and I thought 'That's good, because now the little brats have no place to hide,'" she said.

About six years ago, the pool across from a city park and Red Rock Elementary School became the pool that nobody wanted. The "Red Rock Swim Club" set up to maintain the facility apparently abandoned it, and city and county officials were loath to take on the responsibility.

As long ago as 1993, the pool sat in trust with Clark County, said Las Vegas city official Orlando Sanchez. But officials couldn't do much more than clean up the site and secure it against vagrants until it was determined that no one in the private sector wanted it, he said.

The city cleaned up the pool site twice, beginning in 1991, but to pay for the effort, it had to take out a lien against the property that makes it less attractive for potential buyers, he said.

Finally, after a public auction in December failed to attract a bidder, Clark County officially took possession of the property and hired a contractor to tear down the pool, fence and pump house.

Jim Foreman, manager of the county's Public Response Office, said the crews would clean up debris until there is "just dirt" in the lot.

A neighborhood meeting is set for 7 p.m. Monday at the West Charleston Library to decide what to do with the property, community organizer Geary Lowery said.

Neighbor Don Earl said he was glad to see the pool go, even though he and his family swam in it when it was maintained.

"It was a drag to see it go down to where it was six years ago," he said. "But there's not much nostalgia left."

Earl, who has had access to the pool over his back wall for the past eight years, saw the pool water sit for the first two years or so, growing algae.

Then vagrants and runaways moved in, forcing him to call police or the fire department once or twice, he said.

Police once told him they had found delinquents living in the pool site who had been robbing the surrounding neighborhood.

"It's been terrible," he said.