Friday, October 15, 2010

Fee increase for Parks & Rec

At Tuesday's meeting, the Council voted to increase fees at the Parks & Recreation Department, including at the pool. Both the Herald's Josh Morgan and the MRJs Jesse Buchanan reported on it.

Here is the resolution, along with the fee schedule:Councilman Ecke and I opposed the motion. Here are my comments prior to the vote:



My concern was not only increasing fees in this economy, it was also the process. I'm running out the door now, but will hopefully find some time this weekend to give some more background on my "process" concern.

Tim White

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Swim team rate is only going up $5 per hour??? Swim teams take up over 50% of the pool leaving very little room for families to enjoy. The entire facilities operations needs to be revamped. Town residents need to understand that this is not a community pool. The pool is not being operated for people to enjoy for relaxation and enjoyment. It is being used as a swim team facility and learning center. I do not use the pool since it cannot be enjoyed by a family with small children. The shallow end is reserved at all times for swim lessons. Even with no lessons going on, nobody is allowed to use it. There is a roped off area at the 5' depth for people to enjoy but it is only about 20'x20'. This area fills up very fast on hot days. I believe that there are 16 - 20 swim lanes that are reserved for swim teams leaving 4 lanes for TAXPAYERS to use. The deep end is available provided diving teams are not practicing and there is no underwater diving class going on. Speaking of the scuba class, they can remove people from the 5' area so they can dive.

Do we have a town community pool, or a training facility? Wallingfords community pool is open from end to end for the residents of town to swim. Why don't we?

Anonymous said...

agreed.....thats why we dont go and havent renewed our pass....Sheila is a hack for the swim team

Anonymous said...

Wonder if the replay of the game on MyTV9 tonight at 7 will show the incident? The Record Journal does mention it in their article.

Anonymous said...

The town can raise the rates as much as they want. I will stll never use the pool while it is operated the way that it is. The town should change the sign out front from "Cheshire Community Pool" to "Cheshire Swim Training Facility" with a sign underneath saying "no swimming" or "no vacancy". The voters were duped and taxpayers have been swindled. We need to change how this "pool" is operated or sell it to the swim teams. It is a town owned facility that is closed to taxpayers. Imagine if town hall was closed to the public during business hours. This is the same thing.

I will not be using the pool while under the current management nor will I ever vote for any roof, addition, or remodeling of the pool complex

Anonymous said...

As an FYI, the swim teams via the education budget pay $35,000 per year to use the pool. With the latest increase, it may be closer to $45,000.

Anonymous said...

It doesn't make sense to include the swim team rental money in the pool's revenue number. It just inflates it when really it's just taxpayer money going from one pocket to the other.