Traverse City Record-Eagle

Grand Traverse County

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September 29, 2008

Grand Traverse County pool costs get deeper

By BRIAN MCGILLIVARY

TRAVERSE CITY -- Talk about wading into the deep end.

Grand Traverse County taxpayers can expect losses totaling an estimated $607,000 between 2007-09 to keep the county's Civic Center pool afloat.

Losses keep rising each year, giving county Commissioner Christine Maxbauer a sinking feeling.

"That pool should thrive. It's the only one in town," Maxbauer said. "We are running a deficit and it's because of poor scheduling and because we don't have people in charge who know how to run a swimming pool."

Jason Jones, the county parks and recreation interim director, countered that the pool has fixed costs for items such as chemicals and utilities that aren't affected by the number of people who use the pool.

But pool staffing costs are the facility's biggest expense, according to county budget figures. In 2009, the county expects to spend $340,000 on employee expenses out of an overall pool budget of $488,000. The entire parks and recreation budget, including the pool, is $890,000.

County Administrator Dennis Aloia said the budget numbers are estimates. Over the previous seven years, the county lost an average of $115,000 a year.

"I don't get complaints from other people about the pool, but I get them from (Maxbauer)," Aloia said. "I have a whole book."

Maxbauer has long criticized county pool operations. She said she recently discovered a swim class with one student and the pool fully staffed, followed by a class with three students. She said about half a dozen swim classes didn't meet the three-student required minimum class size.

Students sometimes are transferred out of class based on their ability level and it wouldn't be "good customer service" to cancel a class that fell short of swimmers, Jones said.

Maxbauer and her husband, Greg Pash, are avid swimmers and in July began documenting and videotaping pool occupancy rates, including occasions when it's nearly empty, but fully staffed with three to five lifeguards on duty.

On weekend days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the pool frequently is fully staffed, with just a handful of swimmers, she said.

"Fully staffed usually means one guard is on deck while the others are in the office or on the Internet," Maxbauer said. "When the pool is empty and we have three to four lifeguards on staff it drives me crazy."

Three lifeguards have union representation and must be regularly scheduled, Aloia said.

County Commissioner Larry Inman said Maxbauer's concerns have merit and the board plans to hire an aquatics expert to make recommendations on scheduling, pool operations and pool promotion.

"It is very difficult to schedule and we are hopeful that an expert will be able to show us a better way," Aloia said.

A consultant doesn't go far enough for Maxbauer.

"The pool needs to be divorced from the parks and recreation director," Maxbauer said. "Reduce his salary and hire an aquatics director."

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