New facility has seen booming attendance, strong revenues
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
As Nov. 8 draws near and more people in the City of Burlington start to weigh in on the possibly of a new community pool, local officials have turned to their neighbor to the west for some advice in the process.
The overall theme of the message offered by Elkhorn Recreation Director Wendy Ard is a positive one.
City of Burlington staff and groups working on the details of the pool plan have called and visited, and Ard has laid out what Elkhorn has done with Sunset Pool.
“They ask the same question of what we’d do differently, if we could,” Ard said. “How busy we are. If kids are riding their bikes to the pool.”
But while opinions vary in Burlington, Ard has seen a successful project come to fruition in Elkhorn.
“It was beautiful,” Ard said. “It’s the only outdoor pool in Walworth County, so I did expect to be busy.
“I never in my wildest dreams expected the amount of people we had each day,” she added.
Elkhorn’s success
The renovation and rebuilding of the pool at Sunset Park was completed in the summer of 2015 for approximately $4 million.
A daily admission pass is $5 for ages 6 and up, while a $3 discounted rate is available from 6 to 8 p.m. Individual membership for a resident is $65, going up to $85 for a non-resident. Family memberships are $130 and $175, respectively.
The pool features open swim, a diving well, slide areas and play areas for youngsters, as well as other water features to play under. The pool is also available for private rentals.
The pool was monetarily successful, pulling in more than $60,000 above and beyond its operating budget of $85,000 this year. That budget is, however, staff only. Money for supplies, water and the like goes through a separate budget in the Department of Public Works for Elkhorn.
Burlington’s Community Pool proposal, however, calls for the facility to operate with no ongoing subsidy from the city. It’s something the Community Pool Board – which features representatives from the Burlington’s four major service clubs – has done successfully for most of the current 50-year-old pool’s existence.
While there were some minor hiccups in Elkhorn – most notably, the flooring of the pool needed to be sanded down because of some edges creating cuts shortly after its opening – the pool has been busy and at capacity at least once.
Ard confirmed that once this summer, the pool was forced to turn away customers due to meeting capacity.
It’s a situation like that that has the Burlington Pool Board looking at a slightly larger pool so that there is extra room. Ard did say, however, that larger may or may not have worked.
“If money isn’t an issue …,” Ard said. “But if you look at your operating budget, the square footage, the more your operating budget is.”
Ard also said she thinks there isn’t worry about competition from Burlington, in spite of Burlington residents visiting the pool.
“I think there’s room in every city for a municipal pool, and there’s different things we can offer,” Ard said.
Opposition in Burlington
While there are many who publicly support the new pool, there is at least one vocal opponent – Joe Weis.
Weis lives right across from the pool at 395 Amanda St., and has resided there since the 1970s.
“At that time, Origen Street was almost the city limits,” Weis said, guessing that the population was only about 4,500 then.
He questions whether the pool will last 50 years – as the current one has – and whether the street and the subdivision can handle the additional traffic the new facility may generate.
“Or if it would really want to, in all fairness,” Weis said. “Why do you want all of that traffic going into a residential area?”
Weis maintains the new high school was built to get large amounts of traffic out of residential areas. He added that land-locking the pool at the Amanda Street location will not allow for further expansion.
“It just doesn’t belong there,” Weis said. “Is it practical to have all that traffic and all that noise?
“I don’t like paying $5,000 in taxes just to look at a parking lot,” he said. “I don’t mind if they build a swimming pool. I just don’t want it in a residential area.”
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