With the outdoor swimming pool season winding down, we all can reflect on that time at the end of the 2015 summer season when Mayor Dennis Tyler came to the financial rescue of a membership-only Muncie swimming club — despite the fact that the city has its own municipal pool.
If you don't remember when Tyler gave $10,000 in city funds to Halteman Swim Club, don't feel bad. The agreement between the city and the private pool – located a little more than a stone’s throw from the mayor's northside home – wasn't widely publicized. W/R heard about it this summer.
As for the mayor, he was kind of hazy about it when asked recently. But Tyler remembered he earmarked the money because the programs he wanted done couldn't be accomplished at city-owned Tuhey Pool, which reopened in 2011 after a large-scale rehab.
The paperwork that accompanied the city's infusion of cash to Halteman Swim Club is pretty clear. For the $10,000, elementary-school-age children from city community centers would be “provided the opportunity” to receive swim lessons, play water games and enjoy daily read-alouds. The program was supposed to not only increase swimming skills but promote wellness and character development “in a positive and safe summer day camp”
This couldn't be done at Tuhey, which is owned by the city and operated through city funding by a private contractor.
“At that time, they weren't able to,” Tyler told W/R when asked why Tuhey couldn't provide those opportunities.
When Tyler was asked why Tuhey couldn't provide those services to local youth, Tyler replied, “That was a year ago.”
It would have been a rare opportunity for what Tyler called “unfortunate” children of the community to experience Halteman. That's because the swim club is available to members only, who pay $400 annually to enjoy the pool.
Muncie City Council member Brad Polk, a Halteman board member at the time, told W/R that talks between the swim club and the city began years ago, when Tyler's predecessor, Sharon McShurley, was mayor and Tuhey was closed.
Even though Tuhey reopened after repairs, talks between Halteman and the new occupant of the mayor's office continued until word came down from Tyler to approve the funding.
“Please take out of EDIT immediately!! per Mayor” someone wrote on the $10,000 invoice from Halteman Swim Club.
That sense of urgency, unfortunately, came in a narrow window for those kids from community centers to enjoy Halteman. The invoice for the $10,000 was dated July 29, 2015, but Halteman closed for the 2015 season about a week later. On the Halteman Swim Club page on Facebook, Polk himself posted on Aug. 7 that the pool was closed because of “a major mechanical issue.”
That was the pool's 1962-vintage pump, Polk told W/R last week. He confirmed that the pool never reopened.
Polk is no longer on the Halteman board, but the pool's Facebook page indicated, despite concerns about money early this year, that Halteman has been operating in 2016.
As for Tyler, he's more of a bike-riding enthusiast than a swimmer, but he told W/R that he bought a Halteman membership for the enjoyment of his son's family this year. And he paid for it out of his own pocket, he said.
"That would not be tax dollars," Tyler said.
Bad news for McKinney impersonator
A state appeals court in recent days had bad news for Harry Lee Lacy, the Muncie man who gained access to the Delaware County jail in January 2015 by claiming to be local attorney Mark McKinney.
Testimony at a trial last August indicated Lacy apparently hoped to have an unsupervised visit with his wife, a McKinney client who was then incarcerated.
His stay in thejail that day was brief. A corrections officer recognized the “attorney” as Lacy, a convicted bandit who had unwillingly visited the jail several times in recent years.
W/R: Will the real Mark McKinney stand up?
A Delaware Circuit Court 5 jury deliberated for about 30 minutes before finding the Muncie man guilty of identity deception.
In a 3-0 ruling, the Indiana Court of Appeals rejected Lacy’s arguments that the final instructions read to the jury by Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. had been incomplete, and that a prosecutor’s remarks to jurors amounted to “misconduct.”
When Cannon sentenced Lacy to time already served in jail for his impersonation of McKinney, the judge urged the defendant to try to get his life in order.
At that point, Lacy had been charged with 21 crimes in local courts since 2009. (Most of those counts ultimately were dismissed.)
Since that sentencing hearing 11 months ago, Lacy has returned to the jail — under his own name, not McKinney’s — at least three more times.
Along the way, he’s been convicted of disorderly conduct.And he’sset to stand trial Oct. 31 on three charges filed in June: strangulation, domestic battery and interference with the reporting of a crime.
Contact Keith Roysdon at 765-213-5828 and kroysdon@muncie.gannett.com. Contact Douglas Walker at 765-213-5851 and dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
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