Ahh….the sounds of summer. Kids splashing in the water, teens hanging with friends, terrified youngsters on the edge of the high dive wondering if they should or shouldn’t jump.
Mothers with youngsters in the baby pool. Kids of all ages using the climbing wall, and falling into the water with gales of laughter.
And lest we forget…shlurp, shlurp, shlurp...the sounds of dollars going down the drain.
Spring Lake loses money every year it is open.
That is not a bad thing.
Parks generally don’t make money. Cooper and Atwood parks don’t bring in a ton of revenue for the park district, but they do cost money to maintain.
Again, that is not a bad thing.
My guess is that everyone in Rochelle has a memory of Spring Lake and the pool.
If you are of a certain age, you might have fond memories of swinging on a rope out over the water and then dropping into the spring fed lake.
You might have memories of the old stucco multilevel bath house; was it really pink?

Maybe you learned to swim there. Maybe you were like me and tried to learn as an adult and scared the beejeebees out of the young lifeguard who thought she would have to rescue me after I jumped into the water and did not come up. For a long time. I tend to think of it as muscle sinks, but my weight might have had something to do with it.
Spring Lake has created a lot of good memories. I am glad the park district is looking at the pool’s future.  
Now I am not a genius, but I think it is pretty tough to make money on an outdoor pool in Illinois.
If the weather is cloudy, rainy, cool, or stormy, an outdoor pool will not attract customers. But the pumps still have to run, the pool still needs to be maintained and the utilities still need to be paid. The pool is open only 86 days to start with, so even 20 bad weather days spells financial disaster.
As I said, I am glad the park district is looking at the pool’s future.
When Flagg-Rochelle Community Park District director Roger Bunger floated the number of $250,000 for needed maintenance, it should have given us all a moment’s pause.
When I was on the park board years ago it was a given the pool would lose at least $40,000 per summer — at least. Some summers it was more.
But we can’t just look at dollars.
The pool is a place for kids to go, hang out, and have fun in a safe, supervised area.
It’s a place where moms and dads can take their toddlers to cool off. It’s a place where adults can learn to swim or exercise or rehab an injury
It should be a center of community pride.
Don’t get me wrong, Spring Lake Pool looks great with the water fall running and the flowers blooming. For years the park district and pool staff have done an amazing job with the facility. But there is no parking.
The pool sits in a quarry located at the bottom of an overpass that carries thousands of cars daily, cars that emit exhaust fumes and pother wastes that can eventually drip down into the waters.
It is only open 86 days a year.
The park district will be developing a survey for people to give input and offer suggestions about the pool. Keep it open? Shut it down?
Giving them your opinion will be helpful.
My opinion is we should have a rec center with an indoor swimming facility that provides all the fun and entertainment Spring Lake does but allows year round use. There could be ample parking, adult swim classes in January, a swim team at the high school, exercise classes during the day and, well, a whole lot of other stuff that makes the community a fun place.
Ogle County is building a jail with money generated from tipping fees at two landfills in the country.
We have a landfill right here. Seems like a match to me.