At its March 4 meeting, members of the Wrangell Parks and Recreation Advisory Board continued to examine their revision of user fees of the city pool and other fixtures.
Representing Wrangell’s Swim Club, Jamie Roberts came before the board to inquire about future fees for her group to use public pool facilities. Under a proposed rate structure rejected in February by the Borough Assembly, the club would have to pay $10,000 per year.
“I’m just wondering where in the process we’re at,” Roberts asked.
Currently there are 15 children enrolled in Swim Club, and each pays $30 per month to be involved. Their nine-month program gives them two 2-hour sessions in the pool each week and a monthly clinic, and Roberts explained the group pays for a life guard and sets up its own equipment.
“I feel you wouldn’t even know we were there,” she said. While use of the pool had been free in the past, Roberts said she had made an oral agreement with the previous parks and recreation department director last fall that the group would not have to pay fees for two years as the department transitions into its fee structure.
“We don’t feel we should get use of the facility for free,” Roberts explained. However, she felt the swimming program is a community investment and that either a lower rate should be established or some other alternative means be arranged, such as becoming an official department program.
At the moment Roberts said the club is trying to acquire nonprofit status and that it will have to find grant funding in order to meet the anticipated cost of using the pool.
Park Board member Cindy Martin had a couple of suggestions for Roberts, including taking out a grant application with First Bank. “That might be one way to fund, partial or full,” she said.
“This fee restructuring is still a work in progress,” said Bob Lippert, chairing the board. For certain, he said the parks department would do away with its corporate discount passes, which in the past had unevenly favored employees of larger businesses and organizations over other community members.
New Parks and Rec director Kate Thomas said she was still working on a revised fee structure but told Roberts she would be open to discussion about Swim Club’s future usage rates.
Board members also read aloud correspondence from local roller derby group the Garnet Grit Betties expressing concern about the new fee structure. At the current rate, the group pays $40 an hour for three 2-hour practices each week, coming to nearly $1,000 a month.
The Betties’ letter says the expense is difficult to manage; previously, the group had been using the community gym at no cost when it was available. The team will be looking for alternate places to practice but would like to arrange another rate in the meantime.
In board reports, Lippert said he and Thomas were looking into grant opportunities for trail maintenance at Mount Dewey. In particular, he was hoping to improve the trailhead, making the stone stairway more accessible.
Thomas also explained the pool is on its way to being usable again. A new heat exchanger has been installed, and tile work is what remains to be completed. She expected it to be open within four to six weeks.
“That was a generous timeline, in hopes of coming up early,” she said. To thank community members for their patience, Thomas added she would like to throw a potluck at the pool’s reopening as well. “There’s been a lot of eagerness to get back in there.”
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