HAMBLEN COUNTY, Tenn. — The public pool in Panther Creek State Park may be drained out, but memories are still floating.
"When my children were young, we came here," Linda Noe said. "Your children would play and you would talk and it was just a very, very wonderful atmosphere."
Noe has been living in Hamblen County for more than 65 years. She said about eight days ago she opened the paper and read about the possible future of the pool.
"Headlines saying that the pool would be taken down and the state would invest $8 million in building a lodge down here," Noe said.
The Hamblen County public pool is set to be gutted. In its place, the state plans to put a recreation building.
The pool originally closed temporarily during the pandemic, and the community rallied to convince the state to reopen it. They signed a petition and advocated for their desire to get back their summer hanging spot.
Then, state officials said they would reopen it, but it never did. Noe said that the new plan was like a gut punch for the community.
"They had been concerned about spending well, $560,000 or $700,000 on preserving the pool," Noe said. "Then suddenly I read they have no problem spending $8 million."
But, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said the new project could actually cost more.
"Tennessee State Parks is proposing to construct a new Recreation Building at Panther Creek State Park on the site of the former swimming pool. After working closely with local officials with the intent to reopen the pool, further examination confirmed that bringing the pool into operable condition would be cost-prohibitive for the State of Tennessee and Tennessee taxpayers. The Recreation Building project is expected to include an ADA-approved playground and indoor and outdoor spaces to host events and park programming year-round. The total projected cost is approximately $12.6 million."
It's money that Rob Burke, who recently ran for Mayor, said could be allocated elsewhere. His biggest concern is that the community doesn't have a voice.
"There are a lot of needs that we talked about here in the city, being infrastructure, our roads, our aging sewer systems, you know, affordable housing, we have a large homeless population," Burke said. "If you are going to change things in our home, in our backyards that are going to directly impact our lives, then I think that we have a reason to be able to have a say in that"
Tennessee State Parks had a few suggestions when it came to the pool that the community lost.
"Tennessee State Parks understands the value of access to a swimming area for park visitors. That is why we are also working to secure the proper permits from TVA to make available a swim beach area on the Cherokee Reservoir. We are confident that the new Recreation Building and the swim beach area will be tremendous additions to the park, offering visitors numerous recreational opportunities for generations to come."
Burke said swimming in lakes isn't the same. The closed pool right now is an indoor pool at Morristown Landing.
For an outdoor pool, a community member would have to visit Jefferson County, which is about 25 minutes away.
"It's not the same as swimming in a pool is far more dangerous. It's, I'm sure, far less clean and it's not a suitable option," Burke said. "In regards to a pool, people will say that we have splash pads in the city and that's true. But a splash pad is not the same as swimming."
Noe said the lack of knowledge and communication isn't helping the community. The hope to get the pool back may be drained out, but this new plan now is raising a new question.
"The community may be all for this, but they need to know," Noe said. "Do we need another event center right here, when we have the $30 plus million dollar recreation and event center that was built by the city of Morristown that just opened?"
Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to reflect the public pool is not free.
