File. Bowling Green city pool and waterpark complex.
J.D. Pooley | Sentinel-Tribune
The Bowling Green Parks Board has voted not to raise fees at the city’s pool and waterpark complex this year – with the hope that council could vote that the parks department budget receive American Rescue Plan Act funds to help with rising expenses.
The question of whether to raise fees, and how much, at the pool has been under consideration by the board in recent months.
The pool is facing increased expenses this year, including an approximately $9,000 due to the 50-cent raise in the minimum wage, and an approximately $4,000 due to a 41-cent hike in the per-gallon cost of chlorine used to treat the pool water.
During its February meeting, the board was presented with a series of possible options. First, members 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 50-75 cents. Third, the resident daily pass could be raised by 25 cents.
If either of the options where daily rates would increase were 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.
The parks board makes recommendations to city council regarding fee increases each year in March and September; the increases are ultimately placed before council for a vote.
At the March board meeting, Parks and Recreation Director Kristin Otley said that Mayor Mike Aspacher shared some information with her and board Chair Jodi Anderson. Otley said Aspacher told them he “would be very much in favor of designating some ARPA funds for revenue replacement, that he would advocate to council to move into parks and recreation funds, and that way that would be an option not to raise fees for this summer.”
That would give the board an opportunity to re-examine the issue in 2023 “when we had, perhaps, what we all hope to be a more normal summer this summer,” the mayor told Otley.
A total of $7.3 million has been allocated to the city through ARPA. The city has so far approved investments of that funding totaling $4 million, including $3 million for a three-year residential paving project. Residents recently had the opportunity to give feedback about how the remainder of the funds could be used via an online questionnaire accessible on the city’s website.
Otley said that, if ARPA funds would be designated to the parks for that purpose, “I think really it’s just matching what we know our expenses are going to be, our increased expenses.
“We’re always going to be subsidizing the pool. So the question is, how much do you subsidize it before it takes away from the ability” to offer other programs and services?
“It’s that balancing act in terms of we have to have money to operate,” Otley said.
Ultimately, the board decided to vote for no fee increase in 2022, “knowing that we will be losing some money because we know we have some expenses coming,” Otley said.
She said the board will be sending out information to council, saying that it is not recommending a fee increase at this time, but would be asking that some ARPA funds be transferred to the parks and recreation department budget to take care of the increased expenses.
In other business, Otley noted that five residents spoke to the board, advocating for a dog park in the city. She said the matter was put on the agenda for discussion at the board’s April meeting.
