Dear Menlo Park City Council,
Thank you for your service to the community. My wife and I raised our
family in unincorporated San Mateo county just adjacent to Menlo Park.
Naturally we shop and dine in Menlo Park and our four children went to
Menlo-Atherton High School. We have been Burgess Pool users for 30 years.
(Remember the 33 yard pool?) We sincerely appreciate the valuable City
services that Menlo Park provides, and have always been happy to pay pool
fees as non-city residents.
One of the spectacular features of the Burgess facility is the fact that it
is run so well. Public-private partnerships can be tricky, but both the
City and the operator "Team Sheeper" have done well to make this program a
success.
The Onita Harris pool facility is also a tribute to Menlo Park and the
vision of the City Counsel. It has tremendous potential as a gateway to the
amazing benefits of aquatic recreation for a traditionally underserved
population.
My hope is that you come to an agreement with the current operator on how
to best serve the community. "Team Sheeper" is one of the most experienced
pool operators in the United States. I have been around pools my entire
life, and in the current operator you have a real treasure. Pools are very,
very costly to operate. Some simple calculations show that they must either
be programmed to the hilt, or subsidized.
A subsidy for the Onita Harris is the right way to ensure that access to
the pool is assured. Private operators need to at least break even. Losing
this talented and efficient private operator would invariably mean that
both pools would experience drops in utilization, and increased costs to
the City well beyond a simple subsidy for Onita Harris.
It is incumbent upon those of us who have taken advantage of your Citys
facilities for so long also to stand up and be of service. City residents
should not bear the brunt of needed subsidies. Non-residents should also
pay more. Also, as "Friends of Menlo Park Aquatics", several of us are
forming a group to support aquatics in Menlo Park, help the city raise
money for Onita Harris, and help with any other way we can.
Onita Harris is a great facility, and a gateway to making aquatics a part
of that communitys recreational life. It should be subsidized to break
even. It is a wonderful venue for recreation, lap swimming, and hosting
kids water polo clubs! (So sorry that we lost Brenda Villa to SoCal!).
If there is anything else I can do, or questions I could answer about my
relationship with aquatics in Menlo Park please dont hesitate to reach
out. Let me know how I can be of service as you work through your decision
making process.
Warm Regards,
Michael Fero
mike.fero@gmail.com
(650) 387-5932
