Thursday, August 9, 2012

Money for Pool

Mayor Fritzler sent out the following press release expanding on his proposal to give $100,000 in city funding to fund the proposed CPD Aquatics Center:

Carbondale Mayor Joel Fritzler Proposes $100,000 contribution to Aquatic Center


During last night’s meeting of the Carbondale City Council, Mayor Joel Fritzler proposed that the City of Carbondale contribute a total of $100,000 towards the matching grant the Carbondale Park District received for their Outdoor Aquatic Center project.  Mayor Fritzler said that he was inspired by the success of the Park District’s recent fundraiser and the encouraging show of support by the community for the aquatic center.

The City Council had previously reallocated $10,000 to the project from funds for promoting tourism.  The additional $90,000 would also come from these funds dedicated to promote and market the City of Carbondale.  Mayor Fritzler would like for the new board of the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau to decide whether the funds are contributed over the next two or three years.  The Mayor said, “We have saved some money over the last few months while discussing the future of tourism in Carbondale so, we could make a $50,000 contribution this year and $25,000 during the next two years.”

“This is a win-win project for Carbondale and the Southern Illinois region.  Residents have been wanting and asking for an outdoor pool for generations so, I know that they will step up to the plate (or diving board) and write a check.” For more information about the project, call the Carbondale Park District at 529-4147.

Given that the status of the Convention and Tourism Bureau is currently in flux, with a new board meeting to reconstitute the organization  and that the city council pulled funding from District 95's summer reading program last year, saying the money could be spent better on more immediate needs, like the new fire station (still not started), it is hard to justify directing city funds towards this project.  As the mayor himself said last year:

(Mayor Fritzler) said with the current economy issues, the council cannot afford to fund every program. He said there’s a long list of community projects that need to be completed such as new streets and that should be the priority.

4 comments:

  1. I haven't been following this, what is the projected annual loss of operations, assuming the initial funds are raised to build the pool? Who is going to pay for it, the Park District again? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I will have to check and see if I can find projected expenses for the pool. The plan for initial payment for the build is from grands and fund raising. I think the Park District still owes money on the golf course, so I am very leery of them taking on more debt.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looking at the City of Corvallis budget. Looks like the city kicks in over $1M a year, for their much bigger, year round, indoor/outdoor pools and water park. Guess you would need an apples to apples comparison?

    The next city over, Albany, OR has an outdoor only complex, that must be about what Carbondale is building. They lost $38k last year - http://albany.patch.com/articles/aquatic-center-runs-38-000-deficit-last-fiscal-year But, Albany is over 50,000 people, without a university (and their competing pool) and lack of population when school is out. Of course, Corvallis is much nicer, so they may be driving over there to go water park?

    Oregon must have about the same length season, when school is out? Not saying I'm not for the pool, just trying to understand the costs.

    ReplyDelete
  4. PeterG:

    For what it's worth, the Park District's projections are posted on the Web.

    http://www.cpkd.org/img/Make_A_Splash_Case_for_Support_11x17.pdf

    ReplyDelete