The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

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February 3, 2012

Continuing pool deal makes sense

Dalton Daily Citizen

Since the current school year began two rival high schools have found a middle ground of collaboration and cooperation — and it’s all wet.

But in a good way.

The Northwest High School swimming and diving teams have been renting the pool at Dalton High School under a one-year agreement for $1,000. The rental agreement lasts from Oct. 24, 2011 to Feb. 12, 2012.

Northwest had been using the pool at Dalton State College until last year when that pool started deteriorating and was closed.

So far it has been a successful arrangement.

The schools’ swimming coaches like the agreement, too. Northwest coach Marta Hannah said the deal “saved our program,” noting swimming has been at Northwest for five years and the team has 50 swimmers this season.

Dalton coach Charles Todd said “It has worked well,” noting that he and Hannah have worked together for years and that while the schools are big rivals in football, the rivalry is friendly at the pool.

But this spirit of cooperation and resource sharing may not continue. A Dalton Board of Education member indicated that it’s still up in the air whether the “lease” would continue to the next school year.

Danny Crutchfield has said of continuing the agreement that “we (the board) don’t have enough information yet to see if that makes sense or not.”

He also said that some “people aren’t big fans of us doing it primarily because that pool gets a lot of (use).”

Now why anyone would be against using a pool for swimming is beyond us. Let’s hope that any reluctance to renew the lease with the county school system has nothing to do with any conflict stemming from an unrelated, earlier sports dustup.

Renewing the pool agreement would prove to be a shining example of cooperation between city and county, and would demonstrate to students that the community puts the needs of the students first.

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