Pool enclosure and the terminally ill bubble
The PBCs Pool Enclosure Committee visited area pool enclosures recently.
And speaking of the pool, I now have a better understanding of Council Chairman Tim Slocum's perspective when he wrote this letter.
When I read his words about the continued use of the bubble, I was of the understanding that the bubble had another three to five years of useful life. However, I now understand that is not the case. It's been suggested that the bubble may have only one or two years left.
So theoretically, if the pool budget is passed this year with the usual subsidy and a June 2010 enclosure fails at referendum... then it could be as early as November 2011 when a bubble is on the ballot at referendum.
Needless to say, I will not be supporting anything related to a bubble.
Tim White
21 comments:
Sounds like the life of a bubble top is only on the order of 10 years +or-?
The same group of people who brought us a 10 yr bubble are now out looking to replace it with a more permanent structure. I would suppose more permanent probably means only 15 or 20 years.
The bond paying for the upgrade to typical commercial grade construction will be only 5 years or will it be 30 years?
This tax payer votes for a few expensive loads of dirt and maybe about $50 worth of perennial wildflower seeds to be used in converting the pool into a low maintenance beautiful looking pool memorial flower garden dedicated the the painful memory of all the wasted tax dollars.
Turf will last longer than the bubble.
The key for any project, if done correctly, is to properly maintain the facility once it is built or renovated, which normally translates to a long life cycle with minimum renovations, if any.
This has not been the Town's SOP over the years, thus why we have so many facilities that require major renovation or new facilities.
Fill it with carp and let folks fish in it. This is an extraordinary expense. I would bet that less than 5% of the population use this facility. Get rid of this.
We can debate this issue until the cows come home... Here is the question; would you support a pool fix if it did not cost the taxpayer a single dime? What if a there was a performance deal that reduced the bond cost by 50% would there be support. Would love to hear you thoughts.
If you folks want to live in a community with no public services I'm sure there are many wonderful parts of Appalachia you would fit right with
Gone anonymous said...
Turf will last longer than the bubble.
February 18, 2010 8:51 AM
Just read the other day about a town nearby that wants to do turf and the cost is to be just over $2 million. The Herald today said that no fundraising for Cheshire's turf field has started yet but Behrer still expects to have all the funds raised by the summer and will report to the Council then. I suppose they don't dare raise the issue before the budget is settled. Hope the TC thinks long and hard before they give the go ahead on this turf field that'll only last 8 - 10 years or so.
I finally understand what the town and boe are doing. They plan on teaching our youth what fails so they understand what NOT to do in the future. Hit your own thumb with a hammer and others see the pain you suffer. Why else would they be pushing for turf and a pool while laying off teachers. Very ingenious. This must be why we have blue ribbon schools.
Or are we led by morons?
Or do we just listen to morons who post on blogs?
Bob Behrer said that all they need is 350 people to donate $1,000 each...
Sure, that should be an easy task...
How about if we get 5000 people to donate $1,000 a piece for a pemanent cover for the pool...
Better yet, 500 people to donate $10,000 each...
Is he kidding me??
3:03pm...what Bob didn't mention is that he already has commitments. In fact, $25,000 came from a pledge from one of the "organizations" in town. Interesting in that he didn't mention this in the article but talked about it freely at last weeks turf subcommittee meeting.
The committee consists of Behrer, Trifone and Brittingham. Which begs the question: To which body does the turf subcommittee report to? The BOE? The Town Council or both?
Yeah, lets all donate to the turf! We could donate our dollars to the school system to preserve the budget and teacher jobs, books, supplies, etc but the turf is more important than education.
Hahaha
The bubble will likely last more than a few more years....maybe five.... or ten?
But the point is: do we find a better solution or not?
Filling the pool in sounds fine to those who get their kicks from simplistic answers to tough questions. If they really want that then they should add...."and Cheshire residents of all ages will never have an indoor pool ever again."
That is dumb. There are many people of all ages who use the pool. They are as entitled to the pool as much as walkers have the rail trail, kiddies have park and rec programs and seniors have a great club house on Maple Avenue complete with bus service to take them wherever they want to go.
The town got screwed on the pool by a town manager who was incompetent (mercifully he left after only two years) and a general contractor who defaulted on the job.
Was it a mess? Sure. But the "fill it in and plant flowers" crowd ought to make a longer list and lets start chopping other recreation/senior programs as well.
Fair is fair after all.
"They are as entitled to the pool as much as walkers have the rail trail, kiddies have park and rec programs and seniors have a great club house on Maple Avenue complete with bus service to take them wherever they want to go."
Here's a simple thought, no one, repeat no one is entitled to an indoor pool in this town or any other town in America. At least the last time I reviewed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights there did not appear to be any mention of indoor pools. If you work hard, are a bit lucky and have enough money you are still entitled to spend your wealth here in America on whatever it is you want so long as it is legal. Want an indoor pool, go build it or better yet join a Y that has an indoor pool.
Maybe you are entitled to police protection and k-12 minimal schooling for your children if in fact you have any. OBTW, there are still towns that don't even have their own PDs too. And until about 1955 even in this town if you wanted to attend high school you either went to the local private prep school or you headed to a surrounding city. So being entitled to an indoor, subsidized 7 day per week, 365 day per year municipal pool is a bit of a stretch.
Give us all a break please. America used to be the land of the free and home of the brave but at least here it has become more and more the home of the entitled. The majority would be much better off without a pool which is subsidized by all tax payers. After more then 10 years it should be clear even to pool supporters that for whatever reason this town is incapable of running such a facility at a reasonable cost. And in reality we are all entitled to reasonable and low tax rates.
"The majority would be much better off without a pool which is subsidized by all tax payers"
When the image across CT is that Cheshire is a town in decline and our property values continue to drop, how exactly is the majority going to be better off?
I don't recall the stupid sidewalks on West Main getting this sort of grief. Oh, it's beacuse its' "state money". Yeah. And attitudes like that is why the state is broke.
My definition of "conservative" is based on "conserve". If we do not maintain stuff we already have, the implication will be we are in decline. Sadly, I think as a nation we are willing to decline as long as the Chi Coms will lend us the money to pay for socialized medicine. Keep infrastructure running--that sort of idea went out with Ike and JFK
Cheshire's property values are in decline because selling property isn't what it used to be. Dodd, Barny Frank and their crooked buddies in the financial sector have been caught. But not before the sub prime caper blew up on folks who were entitled to own homes which their income could not support. So went that particular bubble. Guess our pool is kind of a bubble too.
The town pool is a massive advertisement against government involvement into things like indoor swimming pools. The sooner the town gets out of businesses it has no right being in the sooner taxes will stabilize or go down. If taxes head south it's a good bet property values would head up again too.
If low taxes alone meant high property values then there are a lot of poor towns which oughta have expensive homes. Perhaps the absence of any useful services depresses the economy?
I'm not for expanding government, and I'm adamantly against the turf, the trail extension, and the wellow brick road on West Main. But the pool, albeit unprofitable, is a major existing public resource. Blame the original promoters for being dumb and promising "something for nothing", but we need to accept some public facilities are benefits to the whole town and yes, will cost some money.
11:10,
No, what depresses the economy is the government taking money from tax payers thus depriving the capital formation to occur which really drives the economy (capitalism). The goverment at all levels has demonstrated time and again that they cannot spur the economy on and their plans/programs cost so much more than they ever produce (Cheshire Town Pool).
Also your use of "but" is telling. I really hate spending BUT the pool is worth it. BUT we need to accept some public facitlities. Well if it was so great it would fund itself, oh but wait the new enclosure is going to change all that. Or the pool is unprofitable, BUT it is an asset.
How long will it take a non-profitable facility like the pool to create a $10,000,000 return to the town? Since it was constructed, has the town recieved this much more in tax revenue and from people using the pool?
Time to cut our loses. Try to lease or sell it to another agency that may be able to do something with it. We could never get back what we have spent on it, but something is better than nothing at this point. The added annual savings would be huge for all other departments in town that had to trim their budgets this year.
If public facilities "funded themselves" government wouldn't need to provide them; the market would have already responded.
The police department doesn't "fund itself." Perhaps we should disband them and see how long it takes the troopers from Bethany to respond to 911 calls. It would mean lower taxes and that should make sure we have a thriving economy. Right!
You could make a case for funding a PD with tax dollars. Where funding via tax dollars falls apart is when town tax dollars in amazingly copious amounts are continually squandered on massive failures, i.e. this town's indoor pool.
Many folks in town pay many dollars year after to year to swim at private facilities either in town or in near by towns. Clearly a market exists for pay-to-swim in town.
Stop the hemorrhaging of tax dollars wasted on the ill conceived and poorly operated facility now. Lease it or sell it for enough money to cover the past investment by the town. If no one steps forward to take it over and run it profitably then shut the thing down ASAP.
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