Letter To The Editor - Swimming pool concerns

Dear Editor,

I hate to bring this subject up once again, but after reading the article about the $4 million that our city council is spending on the new swimming pool, I feel a few items should be addressed.

First off, I see the daily rates/seasonal costs to go swimming. They cannot be called “yearly” rates because it will only be open maybe three months out of the year, and that’s stretching it. Of course, we all knew the cost was going to go up because you can’t have something like this and expect to pay $1.25 per day to get in. So now the cost has quadrupled in admission, so now parents that were sending their kids, say three to four times per week, will have to pay four times that each time. I’m sure a few won’t mind that, but a lot of parents will.

I, for one, took our kids a lot when they were little, but I know I wouldn’t have if I had to pay this amount. In order to get their money’s worth out of seasonal passes, they will have to be there almost every day.

Where is the money for the annual payment for the next eight years going to come from? Unless I figured it wrong, you would have to sell approximately 2,500 family memberships or around 7,500 youth memberships for the next eight years to make this annual payment. Then you also have the cost of insurance, maintenance and staff payroll. So where will the money come from is my only question and concern. 

Rita Hart

Sidney