This letter was sent to Alan Evans, board chairman of the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation Department Board of Directors. It is printed at the writer’s request.

I am providing this letter to you as I am unable to attend your next board meeting as I will be out of town. Please provide a copy of this to all board members and any other interested parties.

I am 65 years old and I have been using your facility for four or five years now.

Recently your pool reopened. I can’t understand why. The water temperature of both pools was about 70 degrees which is low enough to induce hypothermia. As I do not have a wet suit, I had to wait another two days for the pool water to be warm enough. So much for opening on time and being ready.

I was completely dumbfounded by the changes made to the men’s locker room. First, in any public facility that I have used, when major changes were coming, users were all informed way in advance of the specific changes contemplated. This then affords them the opportunity to provide input and ideas about changes contemplated. (Executive Director) Skylar Archibald did nothing to educate us of the changes coming. If I were his employer, I would terminate him for that alone. It is his job to keep all users informed. It’s not our job to attend board meetings.

Seaside used to have a warm and welcoming men’s locker room. There were three distinct areas to shower that were bright and warm, decorated with tiles designed by users. We also had a total of six shower heads. We now have one area to shower and the number of shower heads has been reduced to four. Are you planning on serving less people in the future?

The shower areas used to be bright and light. The shower room is now dark and dreary due to the brown wall covering. The wall across from the shower heads now contains a bench that could seat four or five observers. Really? An audience bench in the men’s shower room? I have never seen that in a lifetime of using public facilities. It’s pretty clear that the lowest bidder designed this thing. Why not have three more shower heads on that wall instead? If you did that you would actually be able to accommodate more users. The way it is now, less people can use the showers.

In addition, the floor in the shower room is not sloped right to allow proper drainage of the water. There are constant puddles there and in other areas of the locker room. I would suggest that you hose down the entire locker room floor and take a look if you don’t believe me. Also, the sealant that was applied to the floor has already chipped off in at least four places in the shower area.

We have that lovely audience bench in the shower room, yet there are no benches within 10 feet of the lockers. Oh, they brought in a small plastic children’s bench the other day, but it’s only suitable for one person at a time. Can we expect to get any real benches close to the lockers in the future? Skyler has done nothing to inform us.

I’m troubled because you used to have a warm, bright and delightful area to shower and change. You now have a cold, dreary institutional looking place that can’t accommodate as many people as you used to. Was this your goal?

For all of the above stated reasons, I believe that the board should immediately terminate Skylar Archibald for incompetence. He is clearly NOT working for the public.

John C. Huismann

Cannon Beach