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Park Board looks to return to normal pool season next year
The City Pool has been drained. The lifeguards are all back at school. And the Greencastle Park Board can begin looking at a bounce-back year for 2023.
Planning is under way for a full seven-day week at the pool next season, Assistant Park Director Chrysta Snellenberger told the Park Board at its August meeting. She said the Parks Department hopes to have the SPARK summer program back as well.
The good news is that the pool may not face the lifeguard manpower issues it experienced this year, causing the schedule to shrink to five days with the pool closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
“Almost every single one of my staff is coming back,” Snellenberger, who oversees the aquatic center, said.
With a shorter work week, she noted that guards didn’t feel overworked as they can be on a full schedule plus having evening pool parties to supervise.
“The lifeguards had an enjoyable year,” Park Board President Cathy Merrell agreed, indicating that should translate into positive public relations and help bring in even more guards next summer.
Snellenberger also suggested that the number of private pool parties needs to be cut back, saying the pool loses money under the present set-up because of how much manpower needs to be on duty for such events.
Instead of pool parties, she suggested looking toward securing sponsorships of free community swims.
Overall, the pool was closed only a day and a half due to weather this summer. “Most of the bad weather we had was on Monday and Tuesday, so it kind of worked out,” Snellenberger said.
While City Clerk Lynda Dunbar reported a $75,000 shortfall in park receipts for the summer, pool concessions were only about $1,000 short of what they brought in during 2021, thanks to some creative efforts by concessions manager Joanna Muncie, who sought out soft drink sales and scoured central Indiana for the big pretzels that are so popular at the pool but became almost impossible to find in the supply chain crunch.
”The pool not being open every day really caused miscellaneous receipts to take a hit,” the city clerk said, explaining the budget to the Park Board so it can figure out how to pay for upcoming work at the pool.
It was discovered that the filtering system and surge tank were malfunctioning, resulting in sand from the filtering system getting into the pool, Snellenberger said.
Park officials are awaiting a report from Spear Corp., Roachdale, about exactly what repairs are needed. An estimate of $120,000 was used for discussion purposes.
Meanwhile, in other discussion, the Park Board voted 3-1 to keep fees for various leagues using Big Walnut Sports Park facilities as they have been in previous seasons. Merrell, Tim Trigg and Pete Meyer voted in favor of the status quo, while Muncie voted against.
Back in June, the board had discussed lowering the fees and encouraging the various leagues to use the savings to pay for youngsters who might not otherwise have the finances to allow them to participate. During that discussion, Meyer optimistically suggested, “We can find $5,000 (in the budget to cover the cost).”
But things have changed quickly.
“In June we didn’t know about the shortfall at the pool,” Meyer said at the August meeting. “We didn’t know about the bids on the park house (low bid of $142,000 for renovation/repairs). And we didn’t know about $120,000 for the pool filter.”
Lowering the fees now, Meyer said, “doesn’t make sense from a fiscal responsibility”standpoint.
Merrell agreed.
“With everything we have going on, this is not the time for it right now,” the board president said.
In other business, Mayor Bill Dory told the board the Greencastle Redevelopment Commission has agreed to pay the additional funds after bids came in higher than expected on Phase I of the Robe-Ann Park renovation project.
The Park Board passed a motion to move forward and issue a notice to proceed to the low bidder, Feutz Construction, Paris, Ill., for $927,573 for Robe-Ann Park improvements that will modify traffic flow, add sidewalks and provide additional parking in the interior of the park.
The Park Board will next meet in regular session at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7 at City Hall.