At least three, and perhaps four, components of the Piedmont Community Pool project will each bear the name of a local family or a historical figure under a newly approved naming-rights agreement framework.
These agreements will be offered to “major donors” to the community pool fundraising campaign, who have given or will give at least $75,000. Among the specific components expected to be named via this process include the competition pool, activity pool, multipurpose room and pavilion area.
Other donors’ names will also be displayed in a prominent place within the pool complex upon its anticipated summer 2024 opening. The Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization (PRFO), a nonprofit whose main charge is to raise money for recreational facilities that serve Piedmont residents, is collecting most of those other donations.
When the pool construction contract was awarded in December 2022, the project budget was set at about $28.9 million, including $2.1 million to be raised by the PRFO. On June 5, the PRFO presented a symbolic $2.1 million check to the City Council.
But not all of that money is actually in the city’s hands yet. The city is in the final stages of negotiations with the first major donors, and receipt of the first contributions are anticipated within 60 days, according to a city staff report. City Administrator Rosanna Bayon Moore said Tuesday night that two local families’ names, and the name of a “figure of historical significance” are the prospective honorees; a fourth significant naming opportunity remained available as of Tuesday night. None of the names was divulged Tuesday night.
These “figures of historical significance,” Bayon Moore said, could be former Piedmont residents, or others who have had some notable impact on the city and/or its residents.
The Piedmont City Council unanimously approved the naming rights framework document Tuesday night. And though it was drafted with the pool project in mind, the framework can be used for naming rights of any prospective existing or future city project or facility. The duration of the agreements can be up to 50 years.
City Councilwoman Betsy Smegal Andersen said she is glad the city now has a formal framework for naming rights agreements in place. She said there have been situations in Piedmont’s past where “handshake” agreements expired with no clear direction as to how to renew or change such agreements.
Contact Sam Richards at sam.richards4344@gmail.com
Hello! It would be so incredible Sidney Dearing or the Dearing name would be considered for at least some aspect of the pool if not the entire pool. This would be significant because he was the first Black man to buy a home and live in piedmont. He was subsequently forced out of his home, with a wife and two young children, by an angry mob lead by piedmonts own police chief at the time (early 1920’s) threatening to bomb his home. If there was a public pool in piedmont at that time, he and his children would have been segregated from that pool.
And no, this is not irrelevant or going too far. This is history, this is respect, this is trying to do the right thing.
Thank you for listening.
Amy Griffith