Only their heads flash out of the water again and again. But only for a short time, then they disappear into the cold water again. Lane after lane, the swimmers from the swim and sports club (SSV) of forchheim do their routine. And twice a week. The indoor swimming pool has grown on the boys and girls over the years, it is familiar to them and for most of them it is irreplaceable.
Jonas mursak associates it with special childhood memories. He even learned to swim here. He has been with the club since he was five years old. "If the pool closes here, that would be really bad", says the 15-year-old from forchheim. The municipality of kirchehrenbach has not yet decided whether to renovate the indoor swimming pool or to keep it. The only thing that is certain at the moment is that the municipality has not been able to run the pool economically for a long time now. For the current year, the municipality is expecting a deficit of up to 159,000 euros. In addition, kirchehrenbach had to invest several million euros to renovate the indoor pool and make it attractive again.
"My heart is already very attached to this indoor pool", also says SSV coach birgit schmidt. She has been coaching young swimmers since 2002. She has little use for today's spa baths, which are increasingly displacing the small indoor pools like the one in kirchehrenbach: "the kids just slide down there. Here in kirchehrenbach they really come to swim."
"A schliebung would be bad"
Like his two friends lydia vogel and gudrun kelp. They like to come to the kirchehrenbach indoor pool. Twice a week they do aquajogging. In the past, their children used to come here to swim as well. "A schliebung, that would be bad", says the 59-year-old kelp.
She comes from weilersbach, alternatives for her were the indoor pools in gobweinstein, forchheim or hirschaid. "We are sad when it is closed", vogel, 59, from pretzfeld, agrees. But: "perhaps it can no longer be changed. When it costs so much, you can't really demand it from the community."
"I don't care where I swim
Very different uwe and sascha hetzel. They are the exception, because they were not necessarily mourning the indoor swimming pool. "I don't care where I swim", says 12-year-old uwe. And his brother sascha (15) also seems to have few feelings about the swimming pool in kirchehrenbach: "every swimming pool is the same, I don't care. Whereby this is already small compared to others."
Silke messingschlager is more emotional about it. She is a member of the kirchehrenbach indoor swimming pool interest group, which has been responsible for supervising the pool on a voluntary basis for 27 years. The 43-year-old has been doing it for more than 24 years. What a closure would mean for you? "One hobby less, unfortunately, she says, looking thoughtfully from the edge of the pool at the children frolicking in the water. And what she particularly appreciates: "here it is already familiar, you can talk to people, I have already had very nice conversations." Nevertheless – an attendance of 25 people was rather rare. "Our heart hurts", also the chairman of the community of interests indoor swimming pool kirchehrenbach, klemens sponsel, regrets the currently uncertain future of the pool. "But it is about the burghers of kirchehrenbach, the fewest of them now use the bath. Therefore we cannot justify it to invest", he complains.
Above all, not much would be possible without the financial support of the surrounding communities. In his opinion, this also attracts fewer and fewer visitors: "we are purely a sports swimming pool, not an adventure pool like the konigsbad in forchheim." The municipality had always supported the community of interests, but according to sponsel, it had had to think about energy renovation much earlier.
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