Plains pool looks to save funds

by Danielle Switalski
| June 30, 2010 1:07 PM

The Plains Park and Recreation Board held a public meeting Monday night to discuss ways for the public pool to save and make more money each summer season due to the thousands of dollars lost in operational fees each year.

Last year, the pool lost approximately $29,000, which according to Jenifer Reynolds, member of the Parks and Recreation Board, is a standard loss for the pool each year. It cost approximately $40,000 to run the pool last year and only brought in a little over $10,500. The cost to run the pool this year has so far cost around $29,000 and the pool has only brought in $1,200.

"We believe in keeping the pool open and doing anything we can to keep it open for the swim team and the children to keep them swimming there and not in the river," said Reynolds.

The public meeting addressed different options of how to cut costs and bring in additional funds without raising the rates.

President of the swim team, Nawatha Campbell, said the pool losing money is not unique because public pools all over the state of Mont. lose anywhere between $23,000 and $35,000 per year and Plains' pool is no exception.

"It's something that is a service to the community," said Campbell.

The Parks and Recreation Board is determined to do everything they can to keep the pool a staple in the community and turned to the public on Thursday night to ask for ideas to cut costs or increase revenue. Funding for the pool comes out of the town's general fund and from taxpayers money.

Plains mayor Michael Brinson said the town has no intention of shutting the pool down now or in the future, however, the town is in discussion with the county to put a mill levy on the ballot for anyone in the Plains school district to vote on. The point of the levy would be to help offset the cost the town pays out every year to keep the pool up and running.

"The county can collect tax dollars and they would in turn give us the money in order to operate the pool," said Brinson. "We will see what we have to do and what kind of mills we have to ask for to come up with that kind of money, or at least half the money where the town isn't putting out all of this money."

Talks to put a mill levy on the ballot for voters is only in initial discussions and nothing is final as of yet.

Brinson said if the town had extra money that wasn't going to the pool every year it would be able to do things such as road repairs and fix the pot holes on the city streets.

At the meeting, Sam Deschamps, member of the Parks and Recreation Board, proposed specific grant opportunities to save the town money in both propane and electricity usage.

The high cost to keep the pool running comes mainly from the thousands of dollars spent on propane and electricity throughout the three months the pool is open.

The grants available that Deschamps introduced to the Parks and Recreation Board are for solar panels. Implementing a solar hot water heating system in the pool would offset the huge cost of propane, which is the current water heating system. Deschamps said he already has a contractor in mind that would donate a majority of his time to implement the solar panels, if the town could provide a volunteer labor pool. The possible grants Deschamps has in mind would mainly go towards the cost of supplies.

In addition to possible grant opportunities for solar energy, Deschamps said Northwestern Energy is willing to conduct a free, commercial energy audit on the pool. The audit is a one-time deal for the life of the pool.

Although the Parks and Recreation Board is looking for ways to either cut cost and increase revenue, Reynolds said they do not want to raise the current rates of the pool because they are adamant about keeping children from swimming in the river and going to the pool instead.

"We don't want to raise the rates because of the state of the economy right now," said Reynolds.

Out of town rates are higher because in town residents' tax money goes towards the pool. It currently costs Plains residents $50 for a season pass and out of town residents $60.

In the past few weeks, questions have been raised as to why the pool opened late, which Reynolds clarified at the meeting saying caulking had to be done on the pool and due to the slew of wet weather, they had to wait until the caulking dried in order to open for the season.

The city council is set to address the possibility of solar panels on the upcoming town's agenda.

For more information on the grant opportunities please contact Sam Deschamps at 826-0026.