File. A child takes advantage of the slide at the Bowling Green City Pool and Water Park in July.
J.D. Pooley | Sentinel-Tribune
The Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Board has a decision to make at their meeting next month: Whether to raise some fees at the city’s pool and waterpark complex and, if so, how much.
Potential options were discussed during the board’s meeting Tuesday. The board lacked a quorum at the meeting, so no action requiring a vote could be taken.
“Basically, the bulk of our discussion was on the pool rates,” said Director Kristin Otley in an interview Wednesday. “And we had a bunch of data for the board to look at that they had asked for at the last meeting. … Our biggest issue is the increased expense we know is coming.”
Otley said that minimum wage has gone up 50 cents an hour this year, meaning an additional cost this year of $9,000, she said, based on the number of hours pool staff worked in 2021.
Otley said they were also recently informed of another increase in expenses this year at the pool: Chlorine, used to treat the pool water, is going up 41 cents a gallon.
“So that’s about $4,000 more,” she said. “And then, of course, everything is going up.”
Options were presented to the board members in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting. First, they could vote no change in the rates. Second, the daily admission rate for residents could remain the same, and the daily rate for non-residents would be raised 50 to 75 cents. Third, the resident daily pass could be raised by 25 cents.
If either of the options where daily rates would increase is chosen, there would be an increase in both resident and non-resident season passes: resident passes would increase $3-$5 and non-resident passes would increase $10-$19.
“This is not something we take lightly,” Otley said. “It’s a balancing act whenever we adjust fees.”
The parks submits fee increases for the ultimate approval of council twice a year, in March and September.
“The board, if they decide to do any increase, they would take action at their March meeting,” Otley said. “We’re probably going to have to reschedule that because right now it’s scheduled during spring break for Bowling Green City Schools. And we also need to, if they are going to take any action on adjusting fees, we need to get it done and get it to council in March at their meeting.”
Otley noted that there are options for families for whom increases would make pool attendance difficult.
“We do have, and always have, the financial hardship option of 50% off a season pass for residents of Bowling Green,” she said.
Additionally, last year, the parks established a “Splash Fund” from community donations through the Parks and Recreation Foundation, for youth residents of the city in cases of great hardship, in which the remainder of the pass would be paid for.
“We’re really excited to continue that,” Otley said.
She further noted that they will be taking a closer look at the pool’s concessions menu. She said that their supplier told the parks to expect a 30% increase on prices across the board. Otley said they may try to pare down the concessions menu, try to push more sales, or increase some prices and subsidize others.
“You want to have reasonable things for the kids,” she said.
Program fees are expected to remain the same, Otley said.
“At this time, we’re not going to do any adjustments to any of our program fees,” she said, adding they’ll re-examine that issue in the fall.
“The board had a lot of good discussion,” she said of Tuesday’s meeting. “We’ll obviously get the information out to the board members who were not there and look to, at our March meeting, I assume have more discussion and make a decision.”
Rates were last raised at the pool in 2019 in part due to a 25-cent increase in the minimum wage.
