Pool consultant recap
Received May 1, 2007, the pool consultant report has been delivered (Herald, by Leslie Hutchison). Some quotes and my thoughts...
p. 10 - "This report is part of an entire facilities report that will deal with... possible expansion." Maybe I missed this... did someone request expanding the pool?
p. 14 - "Approximately 10% of the municipal stakeholders take advantage of the facility to date. It is necessary to look at new marketing strategies to bring this closer to 20%." What a great idea! They go on to write "The current facility has an... operational expense of approximately $700,000 (estimate)." Huh? Maybe they should've taken the estimate from the budget?... and finally "we need to seek higher attendance and increased fees for the facility." That's a creative approach. I'm sure no one else has thought of that.
p. 58 - "The town of Cheshire has locked into installing a natural gas fired United Technologies fuel cell..." For what it's worth, on March 27 (more than a month before this report was issued), it was announced that the fuel cell idea had passed into history (click here for recap).
p.64 - The report wraps up with a recommendation to install a permanent structure. They suggest building a "long span, prefabricated steel building... with a concrete covering from the deck up to 5 feet." Boy... that sounds as if they did an analysis of "lifecycle costs."
In all fairness, I do believe that the pool staff are trying hard and giving it their best effort. Unfortunately, they've been dealt a bad hand.
Looking forward, I can't wait to hear the analysis of the report. In providing the analysis, I wonder if we'll again hear that we have "40,000+ pool users annually?" If so, maybe I'll ask if Cheshire now has "10,000,000+ residents annually?"
All kidding aside, one serious question does come to mind... since they missed the deadline, can we get our $20,000 back? This contract should have had a deadline clause, since it was publicly stated that the intent was to use its recommendations in the budget.
Tim White
Town Council, 4th District
10 comments:
Tim, you should be re-elected if only because you're a great watchdog, and raise a lot of good questions no one else raises.
I agree we should get part of the money back since the report was so late. What was in the report that we didn't know already?
I think the only way that pool could possibly be successful is if it was turned into more of a "country club" atmosphere. Take the bubble off and use it as a summer only pool. Check out surrounding pool clubs to see what they offer and do the same at the pool site. (food bar, tennis, playgound, picnic area, etc). Then you can charge an appropriate membership fee comparable to other pool clubs in the area.
Once again the Council Dem's have blown my $$$ on nothing.
The consultants report said nothing we didn't already know.
This Council loves studies.....it makes it look like they are taking action where, in reality, nothing is happening.
Who gets the next round of consultant moola....Justin Adinolfi...again?
What a great idea to get Justin Adinolfi. He's great, tell him the study results you want and that's what you get. You also get the whole team W/S, Calcagni, Bowman, Milone and McBroom and Fazzone.
They do waste your money. You should run for council and make that your issue. It could be your chance to clean up the council and run the town the way that you think it should be run.
Why don't we sell it to Bowman and Calcagni for a $1, they are experts at making money.
Then the Town Council can lease it from them for $1,000,000 a year. I hope you don't have a problem with people making money?
Just because you don't make money you take shots at those who do, you are a loser.
You certainly sound like a member of the Pave Cheshire Over Group. Follow your leader.
Justin or Matt?
The pool report is less than desirable and did not make a good attempt at providing solutions for the energy costs. We got what the leadership wanted, a report that says we should charge more. We already knew that. Before the pool opened all we had to do was divide the total annual operating costs of the pool by $275, the family membership fee. That would have told us we needed to have 25% of the town households buy family memberships at minimum. Any revenue generated from daily passes, birthday parties etc would have been extra. That was not done. Now we paid a consultant $20k to tell us what we already knew, or what a beginning accountant student in 6th grade would have known. Don't be fooled by the use numbers, 40,000 people use the pool. That number is not factual as it represents how many individuals walk through the door. If you buy a yearly pass and swim 250 days a year you count as 250 users, when in fact you are one person. Where is the work to get solutions for the energy consumption problem? The report stated we were locked in to the UTC Fuel Cells. That was stopped 6 weeks ago. How come the consultant did not know this little fact? Lack of effort is the answer
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