In March 1975 Council Bluffs Mayor Ray Pogge, father of many SA grads, made a daring and ill-advised promise.  In a pep rally to send the upstart Falcons off to the Class AA Boys State Basketball Tournament Mayor Ray averred, “If you win the championship, the city will build you a pool.”

Well, the banner is on the wall but the vow went down the drain.  Don’t demonize Mr. Pogge, though.  His gesture, born of exuberance, was not within his purview, was not legal and frankly seemed so outrageous as to be impossible.  Though the students cheered the idea, we recognized the hyperbole.

Fast forward to March of 2012.  The Omaha World-Herald reported on Friday, March 30^th that a $1 million winning lotto ticket was sold at Hy-Vee on Madison Ave.  The very next day a crew was seen taking measurements, elevations & soil samples next to the SA auxiliary gym.  A pool, perhaps--after all these years?  Will Mayor Pogge’s good-natured prophecy be fulfilled?

Well, not so fast.  An intrepid SASF stringer heard from the gal who cuts the hair of the neighbor of the mechanic of the shop foreman of the service technician who repairs the furnaces at school that Mr. Ken Meshling was reportedly overheard in the teacher’s lounge on his cell phone pricing the cost to install a bowling alley on some hill.  Food for thought, huh?  Food like tenderloins, nachos & fried delights found at the gourmet kitchens of bowling alleys?