By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
With a proposed new swimming pool and waterpark getting resounding support from City of Burlington voters at the polls last month, the process of how to get that pool up and running began in earnest Tuesday night.
At the City Council Committee of the Whole meeting, Jason Krapfl of Carrico Aquatics and members of the Burlington Pool Board presented the initial draft of the pool’s management plan.
The City Council is scheduled to consider approving up to $5.4 million in financing for the new facility at its Dec. 20 meeting.
The management plan for the pool assumes $170,000 in revenue based on daily admissions, seasonal passes, concessions, pool rentals and events and donations from the service clubs that traditionally have supported the pool in the past.
Working with projections for staffing, as well of costs of supplies for the pool, concessions, chemicals and the like, the first estimate on expenses is $168,048.
The idea, said Krapfl, is to provide a business plan that “the city can run that (pool) in a cost-sustainable way.”
The ongoing maintenance of the facility is set to be addressed by the endowment fund, which has a goal of $1 million in donations. Interest from investments of that money would be used for yearly maintenance. Fundraising is expected to continue on a yearly basis, including the now-annual pool party.
Already, donations for that fund are just shy of $700,000, Alderman Bob Grandi reported.
Paying for itself
Two major components for funding the pool will come from admissions and programming.
The plan is to reduce daily admissions to $5 (from the current $6), but eliminate the admission fee reduction that was offered in the evenings.
Annual membership fees would also decrease under the proposed plan – from $125 to $100 for an individual resident membership and from $195 to $175 for a family resident membership.
There was also discussion of setting a higher fee for non-City of Burlington visitors. The two-tiered plan would give city residents, who paid for construction of the pool via taxes, a lower admission fee than non-residents.
The daily admission for non-residents would likely be $6.
Programming fees will also be adjusted downward. Swim lessons would be $40 for a resident and $50 for a non-resident, while water aerobics would be a flat $50. The current swimming lesson fee is $70 with graduated reductions for additional children from the same family.
Pool rental will be available for $200 for a resident and $300 for a non-resident.
Those prices are in roughly the same ballpark as Elkhorn’s Sunset Park Pool, which is subsidized through taxpayer dollars. Elkhorn’s non-resident membership is $100 and $75 for residents, and is $8 less that Burlington’s proposal on swim lessons for both residents and non-residents.
The plan for the new city pool also includes several amenities that are not offered anywhere else in the area, including body slides, a current channel and a climbing wall.
At Tuesday’s meeting, two major points of discussion were how to keep the pool relevant after the “new factor” wears off, and also how to provide opportunities for those who cannot afford the membership rates.
In terms of keeping the pool fresh, the endowment fund could be used to fund upgrades. Options include changing out diving boards for drop slides and adding inflatable obstacle courses.
Alderman Jon Schultz continued to push for scholarships or free pool days, something that has been a focus of his since the pool discussion began.
City Attorney John Bjelajac a formal contract between the city and the Pool Board is in the works, which will address not only fees but input the city wants to make – which could include scholarships or an exchange of volunteer hours for swimming time.
“There’s going to be a mutual working relationship,” Bjelajac said.
Other ideas
One of the components of what Krapfl presented was an estimation of attendance.
Those numbers would include 20,000 in daily attendance annually – which includes repeat customers. That number plus seasonal passes would account for the majority of the $170,000 in revenue at $97,000.
However, in order to keep costs in line, Krapfl advised that an active pool manager is needed. Among the calls that manager would have to make would be closing the pool on days where attendance is very low, or sending staff home under similar situations as a way to control costs.
The projections also specifically addressed capital equipment replacement, giving life expectancies for equipment and cost for replacement. That included everything from doors and hardware to replacing diving boards to repainting the pool.
The council and Pool Board members also looked at the concessions aspect of the pool, which will likely involve selling pre-packaged items versus a full-service restaurant-type offering. Items being considered include soda, pizza, hot dogs, soft pretzels, slushies, nachos, popcorn, candy bars and novelty ice cream.
The pool is also going to be setting specific activity times, including morning and evening swim lessons and fitness classes, open swims, programming specific to the desires of the community and special events.
The current plans call for a pool with a zero-depth entry area with children’s play apparatus plus a slide and diving well area, lap lanes, a current channel, shade areas and a reservable shelter.
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