They say I brought the warm weather with me from Alabama. Here I am in Massachusetts (Cape Cod to be more specific) catching up on some of the local news. Although the weather is a bit cooler since this story was published I thought I would share it. (Besides some of the local reporting over the death of Ted Kennedy is beginning to get a bit nauseous.)Water’s fine at Gov. Deval Patrick’s manse ...while most swimming holes closed in Mass.
While Gov. Deval Patrick has padlocked state pools from Attleboro to Agawam in the midst of a sweltering heat wave, he won’t have any trouble keeping cool in the crystal-blue, in-ground pool at his 24-room estate in the Berkshires.
The swimming pool at Patrick’s Sweet P Farm retreat is a 20-by-40-foot rectangular concrete basin whose centerpiece is a descending turquoise staircase that’s straight out of a Busby Berkeley musical.Just 3 years old and valued by the town of Richmond at $37,900, the pool is complemented by a very cool 12-by-16-foot cabana worth $8,100 and his-and-her lounge chairs with Blue-State blue cushions for the state’s chief executive and first lady Diane Patrick.
For those times when Patrick voluntarily chooses to get himself into hot water, there’s also a spa.The governor’s $1.7 million country manse is less than an hour’s drive from three of the 21 swimming holes he closed in recent days: John Thomas Memorial Pool in Springfield, Gerald Mason Memorial Pool in Agawam and Sara Jane Sherman Memorial Pool in Chicopee.
“I’ve never been to his place. I hear it’s beautiful,” said state Rep. Bradley H. Jones Jr. (R-North Reading), who ripped the governor for refusing to reopen pools.“Quite frankly, it’s a lack of leadership on his part,” Jones said. “I certainly think he should try, but the administration’s attitude seems to be, ‘We’ve made our decision.’ ”
Keeping neighborhood pools afloat with weeks left to the summer “is the kind of thing you’d have thought the governor would say we’re going to move heaven and Earth to do,” said Jones, who suggested the state pool resources with staff at YMCAs and state police divers to fill empty lifeguard chairs.
Patrick spokesman Kyle Sullivan defended the pool closings, saying, “Unfortunately, we are in the midst of the biggest international fiscal crisis in decades and have been forced to make deep cuts in programs for the most vulnerable people in society, and there just is no money to expand the pool schedule.”
But Kevin Sowyrda, spokesman for GOP gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos, 60, offered Patrick a compromise of sorts.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if he opened up his back yard pool?” Sowyrda asked. “If he wants to be as generous to sunburned constituents as he certainly was ready to be to Sen. Marian Walsh when he tried to create a job for her, he’ll not only open the pool, but he’ll serve pina coladas poolside.”
Indeed, the temperature at Sweet P yesterday reached a balmy 80 degrees while Hub area kids were sweating out another day in the wilting heat and humidity.
Unfortunately, no shout of “Everybody into the pool!” was forthcoming from Beacon Hill yesterday. Should it happen, inflate the water wings and slather on the SPF 100, but bring your own beach chair because the Herald Air Force counted only two recliners poolside at Sweet P yesterday.
Article URL: http://bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1192201Democrats hot to keep seat warm /news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1194572
Private pools extend season for soaked members /news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1194550
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