But hey, outdoor pools are a waste of money, even though attendance at them will probably blow away any attendance at an indoor pool.
More people have attended the Sioux Falls Pools this past month compared to years past.
In the month of May, the Sioux Falls Aquatic Facilities had a record attendance with 30,691 visits compared to the previous record set in 1988 with 23,999 visits.
This past May they were 13,000 visits ahead of the five-year average of 17,500 and 25,000 ahead of last year’s attendance. The recreation program coordinator says this is their second season of using the electronic swim passes, which allows family members to enter the pool by using a key fob.
Family swim passes sales have been a huge success with more than 1,500 new pass holders registering and approximately 2,100 renewals so far this season.
Probably a good thing we have the outdoor pools, we will have to find a way to subsidize the indoor pool somehow.
Another thing I noticed over the past couple of days, our sewer rates are going up to pay for all the blowups and explosions we have had over the last couple of years. Too bad we didn’t have $11 million dollars laying around to help with those infrastructure upgrades . . . wait, sewer pipes are not as fun as indoor swimming pools.
No kids like to swim, period. With the rain we’ve had already pools have been closed as much as they have been open, no surprise the usage spiked as when we get a nice day, kids head to the pool.
Just think, in a couple years, kids can swim whenever the hell they want to, not just weather permitting.
Part of the “package” deal for an indoor pool is closing down Frank Plson and turning it into a spray park, kinda line that thingy butted up to a DT hotel we so generously paid for. 37,000 kids used Frank Olson in a recent year. All that will be gone next year.
About the sewer rates. About 270% higher than they were just eight years ago. Same with water rates. After the next two years rate increases it will cost over three times as much as it did just a decade ago. Good thing wages went up symmetrically. 😉
Pools are closed today due to weather. Huh? My water was off 3 hours this afternoon. Cable TV has frequent blackouts. Lights dim often. I’m an enemy of the city, but this? OK, I’ll hide my trashcans in the kitchen. Go back to the multiple citations method. I can ignore those.
Outdoor pools are all “subsidized” DL. So – what’s new”
Both the pools at the apartment complex where I live have been open every day since Memorial Day and even on the days that I thought it was too cold for anybody to be in them, there were kids and adults in the pools.
What’s that you say Joan? There are private outdoor pools available in town?
Crap – we could save the taxpayers a TON of $$ and shut down all the subsidized city outdoor pools and just have everybody use the private ones. 🙂
Sy on 06.10.14 at 11:47 am
Just think, in a couple years, kids can swim whenever the hell they want to, not just weather permitting.
Sy, time will tell if your statement turns out to be accurate.
The consultant hired by the City recommended: A large Indoor 50 meter by 25 yard competition pool with springboard diving and a separate 3,750 sq. ft. indoor LEISURE pool with current channel, and waterslide.
What the City promised the public before the April 2014 election: A large Indoor 50 meter by 25 yard competition pool with springboard diving and a separate THERAPY pool, a current channel, and waterslides.
The $19.4m indoor aquatic center voters approved and the Council appropriated the tax dollars for does not include funding for BOTH a 3,750 sq. ft. LEISURE pool and a therapy pool.
So, how much of this taxpayer funded facility will be accessible to the public at all hours for recreational swimming (which, BTW, is the reasoning the Mayor and his Team used to convince the Council to finance the $19.4m)!
CR, look at the latest design, if you can actually bring yourself to. It has the leisure pool and the therapy pool separate. It also has the slides in with the lazy river area. The 50M is in it’s own area as well. I don’t see any reason why they would ever shut down any one area for an event or practice as they don’t bump into each other. Once again your crying wolf over nothing.
For your viewing pleasure:
http://www.siouxfalls.org/parks/park-planning/Projects/citywide-aquatics-mp/Indoor/Gallery/Floorplan.aspx
Had to laugh at this latest ‘Shut up and Listen’ session. Apparently people in the Whittier Neighborhood are a little peeved they don’t have a public restroom at Meldrum Park. The mayor blamed ‘graffitti’
http://www.siouxfalls.org/central-services/multimedia-support/citylink/programs/feature-programs/listening-learning-sessions/060214.aspx
Then last night during the public input someone asked why the Library is closed on Sundays.
Funny how there is NO money for libraries and restrooms (in the low-income, social program dumping ground neighborhood) but a $700,000 a year subsidy for a $19 million dollar swimming pool. I guess swimming in the winter is more important then reading and peeing.
I wonder if the mayor is getting his ‘special’ bathroom opening while he’s traveling.
In the City’s renderings of the indoor aquatic center they have simply RE-LABELED what was a 3,750 sq. ft leisure pool and are now calling it a therapy pool.
In this same area of the aquatics facility there is a current channel, and a zero-depth pool with water slides and 2 to 3 lap lanes.
A year ago there was another option. Option 4. That option was never really discussed. Just a footnote to give Joe Sixpack a feeling that maybe they will build an indoor pool for his kids. Not the SnowFox kids. That pool, option 4, cost 6 million less than the SnowFox facility. The leisure pool was also 40% larger than the current one. So a leisure pool that was 40% larger AND cost 6 million less? Go figure.
Ohhhhh. That’s right. Option 4 had a 25 meter lap pool versus the 100 meter one preferred by SnowFox members.
Correction. That should read 50 meter, not 100.
Yes, rufusx, there isn’t one single indoor pool in this apartment complex. Quite often non residents wander in and use these pools, and they aren’t visiting residents either. The people that do this openly admit to other people in the pool areas that they live in other parts of town.
Having been a therapy pool user for many years due to injuries, the one shown on the city’s latest plan would not work. An open pool for all to witness the problems disabled people have. The inability to properly control the large open room temperature at 85 degrees. It also makes it hard to keep dedicated therapy pools water temperature at 94-96 degrees. Once again the City of Sioux Falls is building an unusable beer can bird house.
Therapy Pool Fan:
It was the Mayor and his Team who came up with the idea of offering a therapy pool in this environment. It was done to win the votes of veterans in the April election.
It is NOT what the consultant recommended. What the City is now calling a therapy pool was a LEISURE pool for recreational swimming in the consultant’s recommendations.
Great points by poster #16. There are some very basic standards.
http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscArticle.aspx?TabId=1755&mid=7714&ItemId=3540
About the always increasing water and sewer rates in the best little city in America. The average residential water user in the city of Omaha and metro area uses 7416 gallons a month. SF might be a tad lower as our rates are much higher than theirs, and people here may have a financial need to conserve. For 7416 gallons a month over a years time Omahans and other metros pay:
Omaha. $335.86
Council Bluffs. $354.19
Denver. $424.68
Indianapolis. $446.99
Kansas City. $643.74
SIOUX FALLS. $826.81