Spread the information about the Pool Solution. There are many who do not have the correct information

Do not presume that your neighbors and friends have all the information about the Pool Solution.

Tell five people today that it's a permanent steel structure, that it can sustain 130 mph winds and up to 50 inches of snow and that operating costs plummet compared to what exists right now.

Tell them the roof is composed of the same material as used over pools in Michigan that suffer Lake effect snowdumps, over the Denver Airport, and over the New England Patriots training facility.

Tell them its $2.60 per household per year.

Tell them about the 128,000 visits( NOT including the swim team) that it gets per year.
Tell them about the open sides/pavilion experience in Summer that can be opened by town staff, no more need for expensive contractors to come in and disrupt business for weeks, and that the sun worship green areas are preserved. 

 Direct them to friendsofcheshirepool.org to see the virtual tour, the FAQs, the business plan, the TV show and the details of the structure

Tell them that voting against actually means they are endorsing the current situation. The Solution is far more suited to our brutal New England Winters and we are tired of energy hogging, falling bubbles. They need to vote YES for the Solution to the Community Pool.

Tuesday, Meet the Candidates and a Duel in the Pool

Two things going on tonight, Tuesday.

Meet the Candidates at Town Hall, from 6pm - 9pm. This is hosted by the League of Women Voters. It's a chance to hear what the candidates stand for, how well informed they are, and decide how well you think they would represent you on Town Council. It will be moderated , but you can submit questions on paper to the moderator. Let's see what they are made of.

The second event is very exciting. Undefeated Cheshire High meets undefeated Amity for a Duel in the Pool that will bring out the champions tonight ! 7 pm in Hamden Hall Aquatic Center (Skiff Street). All of us recreational, athletic, rehabbing, and just plain splashers are always inspired by the Cheshire Girls team. It's been a disjointed training year for them but they haven't lost yet.
A great night of competition is in store. It's senior night there too.

They are one part of the "community" of pool users. They are some of our town's finest ambassadors. Hop down to Hamden and cheer them on.

Cheshire helps Cheshire . A different cause - Anthony Morin- fundraiser at Bagelicious, Columbus Day

Help a Cheshire Family - On Monday, Columbus Day, from 5-7 pm there is a fundraiser for Anthony Morin, who has suffered a terrible brain injury from a random bike fall. Dinner, a silent auction and raffles will all take place at Bagelicious Bagels on 945 South Main Street. It's $5 for kids and $10 for adults. Please consider the huge medical bills that this family have accumulated and will face in the future. Cheshire helps Cheshire. Please help this family

Please share the Public Access Show that we recorded

Please share with your friends and neighbors. This program addresses many of the questions with regard to the pool solution, shows the virtual tour and includes a neat video of users enjoying the last weeks of the pool before its closure yesterday.

Special thanks to all those who helped make this possible. So many volunteers have stepped up to help in this campaign. It's very heartening.

Vote YES !

Weekend of Oct 5th and 6th, Volunteer work

31 Days left in the campaign. Not much time left !

We have a couple of campaign events that we need assistance with. This weekend-would you be available to hand out flyers at the sports fields for one hour? Very easy job. We've done it a few weeks in a row and it's been very positive. Friends will be meeting at 10am in the pool parking lot at Bartlem. Email us to let us know if you can join us - friendsofcheshirepool@gmail.com


10/6 - This weekend we will be campaigning at the football game on Sunday morning We need some help for a couple of hours. Please let us know if you can. It's basically handing out flyers and explaining the structure.

  Finally, we would like to start the door to door campaign a little sooner than indicated on our planning calendar. We have a lot of ground to cover and we want to reach as many people as possible It would be great if people could start covering a couple of streets when they can. Cheshire has 475 streets so we need a lot of people. Even if you can do a small block let us know.

We will give you the flyers and the FAQ sheet that has all the answers. Start around your neighborhood and branch out. Once people hear details of the solution they are very supportive. They are weary of the bubble collapses, but unaware of the solution details. This job is critical to our success in November.

 Email friendsofcheshirepool@gmail.com to let us know what you can do. Thank you for another good week of work.
31 days only to get to speak to everyone. Let's get going!

Do you have Audio Visual experience? Update on lawn signs.

Two things today Friends-  First , we need audio visual types for October 8th to help us with a public access TV endeavor. Can you help? Maybe you have A/V experience from high school or work, even a little experience helps. Email friendsofcheshirepool@gmail.com.

Second, Email your pictures of your lawn signs . I see a lot on Rte 10!!!!  friendsofcheshirepool@gmail.com. Don't forget to ask any businesses you frequent if you can put a sign in front of their building. We will get one to you.
Our sign push last night was very successful. Here's a picture of two houses side by side sporting our signs. 2 houses down from these was another. It was a great morning for us Friends seeing the support of our neighbors and fellow Cheshire residents.

Here's a post on Facebook from last night's distribution. Quite the caravan of vehicles turned up to get their signs. The energy was tremendous!

Post by Friends of Cheshire Pool.

Vote YES Lawn signs

We will be distributing lawns signs on Wednesday October 2nd at 6:00pm at the Cheshire Community Pool parking lot. We have fantastic lawns signs that urge people to "Vote Yes for the Pool Solution". We want to see a sea of lawn signs in Cheshire on Thursday morning. So come to the pool and pick one up. We are asking people to make a suggested donation of $20 for the sign. This is a suggested d...onation, No one will be denied a lawn sign. We want as many people who want one to have one. We are hoping to raise additional funds to purchase advertisements and more signs.

If you are unable to make it to the pool please email us and we will make arrangements to get you a sign.

Thank you for your support. We look forward to seeing you tonight, Wednesday at 6pm.

Friends of Cheshire Pool

 

 

Location, Location, Location !

If you work in a business that has a front desk, cash register or waiting room can you put some flyers there for your customers to peruse? Do you work or live in (or both  ) a building that is on a high traffic road or intersection? Can we get you a lawn sign?

 

Please email friendsofcheshirepool@gmail.com to help. The more people who know the facts about the pool solution the more yes votes we get and we need every one of them. It may be a single vote that wins this on November 5th and it could be as a result of one person that you convinced. We need your help. Email friendsofcheshirepool@gmail.com immediately if you think your building is a great location for us.

 

 

 

 

Fall Festival Booth September 7th

Our big event this weekend is the Fall Festival. Friends of Cheshire Pool will be there ! We have a great booth location near the moon bounce We have ample brochures to hand out and some nice takeaways including recyclable grocery bags and stickers. In addition we have some good 'show and tell' features- a scaled model of the pool solution, and hopefully, with a crack audio-visual team, a virtual tour of the Pool Solution airing on a loop on a projector. Not too shabby considering the Council only sent this to referendum on August 27th Our group has been working really hard to be ready for this. The Fall Festival is a major community event. We have an opportunity to speak to many other booths, businesses, sports and civic groups, and get a chance to reach a true cross-section of the community. It's a great opportunity to get the facts to the voters. Looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday !

College students - Take care of your absentee ballots today

Attention all college students.!

Take care of your absentee ballot today. You will be able to vote YES in November.  Here is the link explaining the process
http://www.cheshirect.org/voting-and-elections/absentee-ballots

From the town website -

ABSENTEE BALLOTS

The process for voting by absentee ballot includes qualifying, applying, obtaining the ballot and returning the ballot.

To QUALIFY for voting by absentee ballot, an elector must be unable to appear at the required polling place during all hours of voting for one of the following reasons:

• Active service in the armed forces of the United States
• Absence from the town of voting residence during all of the hours of voting
• Illness
• Physical disability
• Religious tenets which forbid secular activity on the day of the election;
• Duties as an election official at a polling place other than his/her own during all of the hours of voting

 
To obtain an absentee ballot, an elector must first submit an application with an original signature to the Town Clerk's office by mail or in person.  Absentee ballot applications are available from the Connecticut Secretary of State's website and from the Town Clerk's office, either in person or by mail (requests can be submitted by calling 203 271-6601 or in writing to the Town Clerk, 84 South Main St., Cheshire, CT 06410).   Ballots are then issued for each valid application. 
 
The actual absentee ballots for each election are available one month prior to the election, or three weeks before a referendum.  These ballots can be picked up at the Town Clerk's office by the applicant or can be mailed directly to the applicant.  Please note that anyone may pick up an absentee ballot application for an elector, however, the ballot itself can only be handed in person to the elector named on the application or mailed directly to the applicant.
 
Ballots may be returned to the Town Clerk's office by the applicant in person or by mail.  An immediate family member may return a ballot, but must show identification and sign the sealed ballot envelope in front of a staff member.  All ballots must be returned by close of business on the day of the election or referendum to be counted. 

Please contact us at 203 271-6601 or at csoltis@cheshirect.org or visit the Town Clerk’s Office for more information.

Pool Solution goes to referendum in November

After a few tense moments last night the Town Council voted to put the Pool Solution on the ballot in November. It was a vote of 8-1 with Mr. Sima voting against. He felt that the committee should have gone with the more expensive option.

We disagree.

The Pool Evaluation Committee worked diligently to arrive at a recommendation that cuts operational costs, reduces closure of pool to 0%, retains the summer feel through removable side panels, is a reasonable cost, and has survived over pools during Hurricane Katrina and Michigan Lake effect snows. It is capable of being insulated better than our attics and it is a permanent enclosure. No more bubble collapses. No more downtime and closure while the bubble is put up and taken down thus decreasing revenue. It is a reliable recommendation that provides year-round, safe swimming for all our citizens.  It is a good solution that we encourage you to motivate all your neighbors to vote yes to.

Here are some views of the Solution. You can see that it is still an open feel and the picnic and grassy areas are preserved. The airlocks are gone and the dangerous doors replaced. The steel tension building is well insulated and strong. Take a look to get an idea of what the Solution will look like.

Vote Yes to the Pool Solution November 5th

The Solution to the Pool

From 5 to 7 pm tonight the Cheshire Y Sea Dogs will hold their registration for Short Course season. With swim community goodwill, tenacity, and indefatigable spirit the coaches and team have secured pool time in numerous locations so that the kids can prepare to bring further pride to Cheshire at State Championships, Y Nationals, Junior Nationals (and in Olympic years Olympic trials). I would expect to see many of them come from registration to the town meeting tonight just as they did on school nights in Spring and exactly as they did during the vacation days of August. In the audience too were those who have children with special needs who find respite, joy and exercise at the Community Pool. We had seniors in attendance, some for whom the pool is the only place they can safely move, some rehabbing from hip surgery, some just getting their groove on at AquaZumba! Lap swimmers, many lean and fit, attended to find out if their winter swim would continue. High school kids, worried about homework time being cut into as they travelled out of town for a sport that requires so much time commitment already, they were all there. Multi-generational families that travel as a group to the pool to enjoy a day or evening of swimming and fun sat in attendance to find out the progress of the town asset. 

 The Pool Evaluation Committee has answered all the requests that the town asked for. It provided a pool solution with no downtime unlike the bubble, it cut energy costs by giving an option with insulation rates of R35 (better than many of our attics), it found a solution used over pools that survived Katrina and Lake Michigan snow dumps, it held onto the summer feel by providing a pool with sides that could be removed to allow for a pavilion like structure. Best of all it cut the cost of the previous proposal by more than half.

 Those who complained of energy costs have been heard, those who complained of unavailability are satisfied, those who worry about collapse should have no fear, and those who worry about their tan, well they too were considered
The solution to the pool is a good one. We are confident that tonight it will go to referendum, and we will work tirelessly to let our community know that this is the sensible future of the Cheshire Community Pool.

Asking for help

Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make the public information session on June 27^th a success.  I think we all got a glimpse of what we are up against. To get facts out to all the public will take a huge effort but we are up to the challenge.

Now it is necessary to raise funds to wage an effective large scale campaign for a year round pool.  We are asking that you please make a donation so that we can share the facts with more members of our community.   Funds raised will be used to purchase advertisements and signs, to produce information brochures, and to otherwise inform the public and obtain support for the pool. Any amount will help.

For this to be a successful campaign, it is critical that we have your financial support.

Please donate today.  Send personal checks* made payable to Friends of Cheshire Pool to: P.O. Box 238, Cheshire, CT 06410 or by visiting www.Friendsofcheshirepool.org and clicking on the Donate tab.

Thank you for your support,

Friends of Cheshire Pool

 

Note:  On July 23, 2013 the Pool Evaluation Committee will make its recommendation to the Town Council.   We need to secure the vote from the Town Council to take the recommended structure option to referendum in November.   Please mark your calendars and attend. 

 

* State law prohibits contributions from business entities.

Let them know you're coming tomorrow, Thursday at 7.30

Please share -
Here are the email addresses of the Town Council members. Let them know that you are going to the meeting tomorrow Thursday at 7.30 pm and that you support a year-round pool.
pafh@aol.com,  michaele584@aol.com, sspn13@cox.net, dsschrumm@cox.net, tomruocco@snet.net, aafalvey@cox.net, petert111@cox.net, jrs7@att.net, tslocum@snet.net

Town Hall, Pool Information Session Thursday June 27th 7.30

3 options to be discussed at Thursday's meeting. The article below gives an overview of each of these options. Each and every one of us will need to attend the Information Session on Thursday evening at Town Hall. Bring your neighbors. Car pool. Ask your questions. Wear an item of swim apparel (like goggles) Support a year round, viable solution.

http://cheshire.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/committee-ready-to-present-pool-alternatives?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001&evar4=picks-1-post

Remember - Thursday, June 27th at 7.30. Town Hall. Wear something pool related to show your support (goggles, swim shirt, go nuts !!!!)

Give them a call

It's almost 1pm. Do you know where your Town Council members are? Give them a call and tell them why the pool is important to you .

Patti Flynn-Harris
360 Carlton Dr.
272-1392
pafh@aol.com



Michael Ecke

36 Williamsburg
272-1351
michaele584@aol.com

Sylvia Nichols
100 Barytes Dr.
272-1286
sspn13@cox.net


James Sima
180 Birch Dr.
271-0467
jrs7@att.net


Timothy Slocum*
1285 Lilac Ct.
272-0652
tslocum@snet.net


David Schrumm
369 Sir Walter Dr.
272-2689
dsschrumm@cox.net


Thomas Ruocco
6 North Pond
272-8135
tomruocco@snet.net


Andrew Falvey
379 Peck La.
272-8305
aafalvey@cox.net


Peter Talbot
1271 Lilac Ct.
439-3833
petert111@cox.net

Town of Cheshire Pool Evalution Committee Public Information session. Call and email your Town Council members.

The bubble collapse this past winter at the Cheshire Community Pool was very disappointing to all those who use and enjoy the pool all year round.  This unfortunate event obviously raises concerns about the long term future of the pool.  We, as a community, are being called to task and we, as the Friends of Cheshire Pool, will rise to the occasion to ensure that our pool remain a community resource.  We will certainly face challenges moving forward.  But let there be no doubt that we will meet these challenges because we all share a vision of a pool that is a permanent fixture in this community.

Maybe it is fitting that the winter storm that brought down our home pool was named NEMO.  After all Nemo is the name of the children’s movie where the father, Marlin, is totally committed to swimming as far and as long as possible to bring his son home.  We will have to show that same endurance to make our voices heard and to let the town council and the community know that the pool deserves a permanent solution.  In this vein, the loss of the bubble gives us an opportunity to achieve a solution that will be more impressive and reliable, as well as sustainable for the future of our town.

We will wage a positive campaign to make sure Cheshire is informed about all of the great qualities that a year round pool brings to our community.  Together we can make this happen.

The Town of Cheshire Pool Evaluation Committee is planning to have a public information meeting on Thursday, June 27, 2013 at Town Hall.  This meeting is intended to inform the public about the remaining three options-- a new modified bubble; a steel tension membrane structure; and an open/air (greenhouse) type structure.  After this public information session, the Pool Evaluation Committee will then decide on the final recommendation it will make to the Town Council.  The Town Council will meet on July 23, 2013 for a vote on whether that option will be the subject of a referendum to be on the ballot in the November election.

Leading up to these meetings it is imperative that everyone call and email all members of the Town Council to make sure they understand that a majority of the town supports a year round solution for the pool. 

Here are addresses, phone numbers and emails for the Town Council members:

Patti Flynn-Harris	360 Carlton Dr.	272-1392	pafh@aol.com
Michael Ecke Sylvia Nichols	36 Williamsburg	272-1351	michaele584@aol.com
	100 Barytes Dr.	272-1286	sspn13@cox.net
James Sima	180 Birch Dr.	271-0467	jrs7@att.net
Timothy Slocum*	1285 Lilac Ct.	272-0652	tslocum@snet.net
David Schrumm	369 Sir Walter Dr.	272-2689	dsschrumm@cox.net
Thomas Ruocco	6 North Pond	272-8135	tomruocco@snet.net
Andrew Falvey	379 Peck La.	272-8305	aafalvey@cox.net
Peter Talbot	1271 Lilac Ct.	439-3833	petert111@cox.net

It is also incredibly important that we all attend the public information session on June 27, 2013 and the Town Council meeting on July 23, 2013.  Please mark these dates on your calendars.  We want to make sure that the Town Council understands how important this is to the community by having a very large crowd in attendance at these meetings.

We are working and will continue to work very hard to get the word out and inform the public.  Please go to www.friendsofcheshirepool.org and Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FriendsOfCheshirePool to stay updated on important meetings, ways to get involved and fundraising.  If you have any questions you can always email  us at friendsofcheshirepool@gmail.com.

We believe that we there will be a positive outcome in November if we all come together now.

How does the pool benefit you ????

 The greatest thing about our pool is that it serves so many in our community in so many ways. In chatting with several Friends this weekend at the bake sale we realized that the pool benefits us in so many different ways -

•  a mother rehabbing from a knee injury,
• a child with asthma building up stamina,
• a place for a family to hang out together,
• a man working on getting back into shape after too much time in an office chair,
•  a stroke victim who loves the warm water and the freedom of movement in the water, grandparents bonding with kids, 
• a teenager with a laser focus on a goal of college swimming.
• all ages learning how to swim,
• Zumba !!!!
• and many, many more......

So many stories.

What is your story? How does the pool benefit you and your family?

 

Visit  Our Facebook page or,

 

Our website Friends of Cheshire pool

 

Share your stories

Important Dates, Town Hall meetings

 SAVE THE DATES

Here are the two critical dates for all of us Friends of Cheshire Pool to show our support of a viable, year-round structure .

Town Hall meetings.
June 27, 2013 - Pool Evaluation Committee - Public Information Session
July 23, 2013 - Town Council Meeting - Pool decision

... We need to be a visible, vocal majority.

We will post reminders as we near the dates but pencil this in for now. We are looking forward to meeting you all in person.

Bake Sale at Bagelicious 8th and 9th June.

Please Share- Bake Sale

Friends of Cheshire Pool is running a Bake Sale this Saturday 8th, and Sunday the 9th outside Bagelicious.

In the past the anti-pool people have been extremely  vocal.  In order to get the true facts about the pool out we will need to make posters, run informational ads, wear tshirts and use all the media tools we possibly can. Our voices must be heard.

A small donation for a brownie or a large donation for a favorite bread will help us raise funds to spread the word. Email friendsofcheshirepool@gmail.com if you'd like to donate baked goods.

We have some very accomplished bakers in this group. Drop by to chat with them. Buy a delicious cookie, and then go to the pool to burn off the caloriesJ

Thank you again for supporting Friends of Cheshire Pool.