#in the middle
Status: 07/24/2021 7:54 p.m.
The old open-air swimming pool in Bevern, Lower Saxony, is dilapidated, but it has not lost its charm: And it is so strong that four young people are fighting to keep the pool open – with success?
The water is cloudy and the tiles are loose. And yet the former charm of the outdoor pool in Bevern can be recognized: a 50-meter pool, a pool for sliding and jumping and another covered – beautifully located in the hills near the Weser. “It’s a great place to meet everyone in the area,” says 17-year-old Hanna Ostermann.
She had an idea: a petition could help to get the issue going again. She has known Gesa Trucks, Julian Kuhnt and Jonah Schulze since kindergarten, they spent their summers together on the lawn, they made heads and dared to jump from the three-meter tower.
And so the four now make the decision to become politically active for the first time in their lives. They collect signatures: online on the Internet and in real life with lists in shops. The goal: The outdoor pool should reopen, preferably next year, no matter how.
# in the middle: saving the swimming pool
Angelika Henkel, NDR, July 22, 2021 3:15 p.m.
The community pays on it every year
But the outdoor pool is dilapidated. And the community pays on top of it every year. It is to remain closed for several summers to save costs and then, if everything goes well, to be converted into an environmentally friendly natural pool in a few years.
A study specially commissioned showed that there is no natural swimming pool in the area – the chances of receiving subsidies from the federal government are therefore good. “It would have been the jackpot,” explains Mayor Thomas Junker (CDU), who would like to jump into the water himself.
But there was no financial injection, the members of the Bundestag opted for other communities. All over the country there are sports facilities that urgently need to be renovated. Now the entire community is hoping for funds from other programs, the applications are already on the table.
Mayor Junker also hopes that the swimming pool can be saved.
Image: Angelika Henkel / NDR
Outdated technology
But what if that doesn’t work again? A look into the engine room of the bathroom shows that the filter systems and pumps from the seventies are getting on in years. If they break, it threatens to be expensive.
Cost plans, financing questions, applications – all of this is new territory for Hanna Ostermann and her friends: “We try to understand it as well as possible.” Together with the friends’ association, they were invited to the mayor’s office.
The idea: maybe a renovation, a renovation, a loan at the risk of the association? Board member Günter Weinfurtner is enthusiastic about the young people: “The four of them are already stars for many people here. We owe them to us that the outdoor swimming pool is a hot topic in the region.”
Currently out of order – but maybe with a future: The Bevern outdoor pool.
“We also speak for our grandparents”
Despite the pandemic, the joint congregation meeting is as full as it is rarely; there is a lot of applause for the youngsters giving a speech. “We like to spend our youth here,” reads Gesa Trucks. “And we also speak for our grandparents. Exercise and social life in the outdoor pool are particularly important for them.” 2263 signatures are in the folder that she hands over to the mayor of the municipality.
In the summer – and this is their greatest success so far – administration, politics and the support association want to meet to consider how there can still be a plan B so that the outdoor pool can reopen next year. The young people will sit at the table. “We now know how politics and democracy work,” says Gesa Trucks. And they will vote for the first time in the local elections in the fall.