City Budget for Belle Haven Pool
I recently visited the Belle Haven pool at mid-day. There were three
Sheeper staff at the pool doing lifeguarding and other jobs. There was not
a single swimmer. I talked to a friendly staff member who was anxious to
talk and to promote the pool. She told me the pool hours and said they had
maybe a couple dozen swimmers per day. Clearly this pool operation will
have a deficit of higher costs than revenue. My understanding is that this
deficit is about $250,000 per year.
I cannot imagine any scenario where the Burgess pool operation can make
enough money cover this great a deficit. We could raise the Burgess user
prices, we could cut Burgess hours or we could change operators. Each of
these creates new problems. The worst of all would be to change pool
operators. Ive been around many pools and my experience is that the
Sheeper operation is exceptionally good and exceptionally efficient. We are
unlikely to find an operator who can run a pool as well and as efficiently
as the Sheeper operation.
I believe we in the City have a consensus that we should make swimming
available in the Belle Haven community. But we have to pay for it. The
Burgess operation is not going to be able to do it. Im not aware of any
pools, with the exception of the Sheeper operated Burgess pool, that break
even, let alone provide any excess. Perhaps a private donor will step
forward but as far as I know this has not happened. If we want to have
swimming at Belle Haven, and we do, then we need to allocate City budget
funds to do it.
Dave Gildea
435 Hermosa Way
District 5
