Cool summer puts damper on city aquatic center profits

Sunday, September 8, 2013

By ERIC BERNSEE

Editor

A wet late spring and a cool summer may have been the perfect recipe for a bumper corn crop but that combination took the sizzle out of summer for the Greencastle Aquatic Center.

After a prosperous 2012 summer filled with humid 90- and 100-degree temperatures that sent residents to the pool to be cool and produced solid six-figure revenues for the swim season, the 2013 swim season bellyflopped.

Days for fun like this at the city pool were limited this summer due to wet conditions earlier and cool temperatures later.

Revenues were down approximately 30 percent at the pool this summer, Park Director Rod Weinschenk told the Park Board at its September meeting.

During 2012, daily earnings (admission fees, pool rental, etc.) at the aquatic center totaled a hefty $79,730.62, while accompanying revenue from the concession stand was reported at $26,434.61.

That amounted to a revenue total of $106,165.23 in the steamy summer of 2012.

Fast forward to 2013. Late May is wet. Most of June and early July is cool, and along comes the fair and an early August start to school to help dash any hopes of revenue recovery this summer.

For the pool season just ended, daily earnings were reported as $53,839.83 (down nearly $26,000 from a year ago). Concession stand figures weren't any better at $16,686.75 this summer (down nearly $10,000 from 2012).

"As you know," Weinschenk said, "it was cool and it started off rainy. We didn't have high attendance at all, everything was down.

"The summer wasn't the warmest or friendliest to an outdoor swimming pool," he assured Park Board members John Hennette, Tim Trigg, Beva Miller and Cathy Merrell.

Fortunately, the park director said, he and City Clerk-Treasurer Lynda Dunbar saw the handwriting on the wall and began watching the figures extremely close from the slow start to the season. And they reacted by curtailing expenses wherever possible at the pool and park.

For example, concession orders were cut back, and lifeguards and pool personnel saw their hours reduced with fewer swimmers on hand and minimal days of good weather.

"They didn't like it so much," Weinschenk said of those lost lifeguard wages, "but it was something we had to do."

And the department's reduced spending trend will continue throughout the remainder of 2013, he said, to help make up for those lost pool revenues.

"Hopefully," Weinschenk said, "we will make it up at the tail end. It might be tight but it should be workable."

His interpretation, Weinschenk added, is that the "lower revenues will have a negative effect on us for the remainder of 2013 and into 2014. How much has yet to be determined."

In other business, the Park Board considered a number of special event requests, approving:

-- An Oct. 14 5K family fun run fundraiser organized by the Ridpath School PTO, represented by Holly Wood. The event will use the outside blacktop loop at Big Walnut Sports Park and the shelterhouse there. Proceeds will be used for new gym equipment for the primary school.

-- An Oct. 5 "Protect Your Head Jam" fundraiser, sponsored by Nick Summerlot on behalf of his friend, Brett Banasiewicz, a BMX rider who suffered a brain injury about a year ago. Although he is on his way back to being 100 percent, Banasiewicz has been saddled with huge medical bills, Summerlot said. Music and food will be available at the event.

-- An Oct. 5 family gospel music event in the bandshell at Robe-Ann Park. Joe Miller explained that the event is not affiliated with any church but is something his family decided to do. Miller has rented the bandshell and shelterhouse No. 1 on the hill overlooking it from noon to 7:30 p.m.

-- A Sept. 15 carnival fundraiser for Riley Hospital for Children, sponsored by DePauw University sorority Psi Lambda Xi, from noon to 5 p.m. in shelterhouse No. 2, adjacent to the skatepark.

-- Two events sponsored by Dance Workshop as fundraisers for its competition team. An Oct. 5 or 6 5K Fun Run/Walk and an Oct. 19 softball tourney. The board authorized Weinschenk to work out final details with organizer Tara Gardner, who was not present.

-- An unspecified date for a Boy Scout Pack 99 Mini-Camporee at Big Walnut Sports Park. The board authorized Weinschenk to work out details with Cubmaster Jason Huff, who was not present.

The next scheduled meeting of the Greencastle Board of Park Commissioners is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3.

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  • Glad I did not purchase a season pass this year just to have it cut short.

    -- Posted by Hungry&Fat on Sun, Sep 8, 2013, at 8:02 PM
  • Who made the decision to close the pool in early August? Maybe that wasn't such a great idea. During the warmest part of the summer the pool was already closed. No wonder the revenues were down.

    -- Posted by Ben Dover on Sun, Sep 8, 2013, at 8:48 PM
  • No mention about the kiddie area being closed for the entire year. This might be one reason family passes were way down.

    Haven't heard anything for a long time about the projected $250M cost fund raising on the new addition.

    -- Posted by Lookout on Mon, Sep 9, 2013, at 9:21 AM
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