Like may of you reading this edition of the Wetzel Chronicle, we were very sad to hear the news that Bruce Pool will not open this summer. Even more devastating is the very real possibility that it may never open again.

The 68-year-old structure is outdated and crumbling, but it is such a fixture and landmark in New Martinsville that it seems incomprehensible that it may never be filled with sparkling pool water again.

Generations of swimmers and sunbathers have paid their admission, entered through the doors, and climbed the stairs. They spread their towels on the concrete deck and overlooked the rest of the park. They got up the nerve to jump off the high dive, that is until it was removed for safety reasons.

Now the government has decided the drain is too dangerous to be at the bottom of our pool-that to our knowledge has never taken the life of any patron because they couldn’t escape the pull of the drain.

We don’t profess to know the technicalities of the current and necessary drains, but we do know that we have splashed in Bruce Pool’s waters safely for almost 70 years.

Now the government has decided new regulations are necessary for our safety because the former Secretary of State’s daughter drowned at the pull of a non-public pool drain that presumably wasn’t guarded by a lifeguard.

Our sadness and disappointment is not directed at the New Martinsville Parks Commission, they were only making a tough, necessary decision. We are, however, a bit perturbed at yet another unfunded mandate “for our own good.” Yeah right.