The meeting will be at Carnegie Hall at 4 PM Downtown. I enjoy the work sessions because it is a pretty open forum where sometimes people from the public attending can participate. They usually hold the meeting in the foyer.
UPDATE: Many things occurred at the work session (hope to have a video up soon). One thing was clear at the end of the meeting, the indoor aquatic center is NOT being built for the same users as the outdoor pools.
I was able to address the council and dispel a couple of things discussed, I told them;
1) Our pool rates CANNOT be compared to other communities in South Dakota, our sales tax base is totally different because of our retail.
2) User fees increases (which I support) should be based on inflation, not pulling numbers out of the sky like the administration and some council members did today
3) Keep the free pool passes for the poor, but ask for a free will donation when they acquire them.
Will be listening closely today to hear how they are going to make that new 24 million dollar indoor pool accessible to the 52% of families in our community who cannot currently afford summer season passes……….
Well……
What I heard, after listening to 2 hours of Council and staff discussion regarding pool user rates is:
* All families who are currently using free and reduced family passes to access Sioux Falls OUTDOOR pools will be allowed to continue doing so provided they are able to supply CURRENT (2016) verification of their qualifying status.
This is supported by Councilors: Anderson Jr., Rolfing, Erpenbach, Erickson, Jamison and Kiley. Opposed by Staggers. Chairman Karsky was absent and it is unknown how he will vote.
That’s the good news.
Now,
For the bad news.
No surprises here!! There will be NO FREE passes to the new 24 million dollar indoor pool. So, all you families (currently 52% of all family outdoor season pass holders), who have qualified through EBT, Medicaid, and the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program, will have to come up with $150 PER PERSON for an annual pass to the indoor pool! (for a family of 5 that would equate to $750 a year). This is from families who have LITTLE OR NO DISCRETIONARY INCOME!!!!!
Meanwhile, the special interest groups will be allowed to rent lanes (25 Yard/25 Meter) by the hour at a rate of $5.00 an hour. Yes, just $5 an hr for whoever you can fit in the lane and BTW, special users, you won’t be paying an admission fee either!!
AND, you will have access to ALL THREE POOLS from 5 to 7 pm Monday through Friday. (NO OPEN SWIM during these times!!!)
I seem to have all these voices in my head from BEFORE THE PUBLIC VOTE telling everyone this will NOT be a facility for special interests, it will NOT be an elitist operation!!!
AND,
WE WILL MAKE CERTAIN IT IS ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE IN THIS COMMUNITY!!!
I guess they weren’t talking to the 52% who currently are on free and reduced family passes for outdoor swimming.
Change it back. Keep lower rates. Do not discriminate against lower income. Free passes for families who get rental assistance and food stamps.
It really shocks me that the Indoor Pool isn’t named the Snowfox Indoor Pool. After all that is mainly who it was built for.
Have said from the very beginning about this indoor pool. It is for the Snofox swim club so they can have a 50 meter pool, and a place to call home. Like everything else in this town, state, country. It’s all about income inequality, what the haves can have, and what the have have nots cannot have. Someday the have-nots will far far outnumber the haves, then what will we have?
Poly’s right. The swimfox center is selective discrimination. It’s evident from increased rates and special hours. I’ll bet it’s free and open off hours for the swim team. Here’s another civil rights case. Our citizens are mostly passive card call center types. So I doubt there will be demonstrations. This could change with new business coming into the area. I’m convinced local government has us quashed and under a rock. Perhaps, we’ll come out once the waste and corruption is revealed with the election of a new mayor.
I doubt there will be demonstrations.
Oh, don’t count on it Daily Spin, I plan on rounding up more than a few people for a demonstration on ribbon-cutting day if this publicly-owned facility is NOT made accessible to all as promised before the public vote.
I was at the working session. It was very informative. Regarding the indoor pool, as the meeting ended I turned to Scott and said “I guess the charade that the indoor pool is for everyone is officially over.” That caused a city employee to quickly turn his head and give me a death stare. But its 100% true. To her immense credit, Councilor Erpenbach was very vocal in expressing how disappointed she was that we were taking away a neighborhood pool and making this pool a divide between the haves and have nots. Unfortunately she is essentially alone on that one. Just about every other councilor expressed something of the form of ‘the indoor pool is its own creature’ etc. It may be, but for those of us who were at the info-advocational sessions, the city parks representatives stated repeatedly that they were projecting/assuming/planning on having ‘seasons’ with the indoor pool and you’d get in with the same pass you had for the outdoor pool. Voters were very concerned and asked about the cost structure and that it would be affordable, and they were assured it would be. I am not calling the city employees liars, because that’s a serious charge and you have to know you are wrong to be telling a lie. I’ll be charitable and assume they had planned on it, but are now finding those numbers won’t work. This by the way is another reason the city never should have been doing these advocational sessions, it was far too close to ethical lines (if not over), and now we have put the councilors into the position of either honoring what voters were told or betraying it.
Bottom line is the kids in that neighborhood have lost their neighborhood pool, and I guess they better hope they have the free bus passes every year now because they’ll need it to schlep across town to another outdoor pool they can get into for free (or a reduced price).
I told people if you want to vote for the indoor pool, fine, just realize that you are voting to NOT replace or add other outdoor pools for years to come, and you are voting to bulldoze a neighborhood pool and replace it with an indoor pool that’s going to cost a lot more and probably not be accessible to many/most kids in the neighborhood. And here we are.
Greg Neitzert, I was especially disappointed by Councilors Anderson Jr. and Jamison.
Both referred to the new indoor pool “as a step up” and showed little or no regard for all those kids who will never see the inside of that facility because of their economic circumstances.
And, at $150 (REDUCED individual annual pass) or $300 (REGULAR individual annual pass) there are going to be a whole lot of kids and adults who aren’t going to be able to access this taxpayer supported indoor pool.
(Capital Cost: 24m, Annual Operating Costs: $700,000+ per consultant).
Both of these Councilors in the past have talked about their own humble and economically challenged backgrounds as children growing up in Sioux Falls. They both seem to have suddenly forgotten all of this!!!
So how much for one visit? $12.50 a month sounds pretty reasonable and within reach if you want an annual pass.
Swimfox Center is but another Huether Tennis. It’s a way to use public money for a private purpose. Now, the Bids Board! Nobody seems to realize this is a way to take away checks & balances from the council and public. Of course the private Bids Board will select Huether’s choice on future budget drains. Watch when there’s but one bidder because others won’t. They realize the contract is already decided. It’s the oldest simplest con and the council endorses it.