Editor's note: These remarks were originally prepared and read for the Feb. 19 Waverly City Council meeting and have since been updated.
As a representative for Waverley Area Swim Club and The W, both of which serve as coaches and instructors for various aquatic programs, I have serious concerns about the impact of not having a community swimming pool. It's a shame that these user groups are not taken into account in decision-making, as a pool is much more than a place to leave your children or visit on a hot day.
Firstly, we want the council and the community to know about swim clubs and how the closure will affect WASC. For decades, the program has provided youth with quality instruction and competition in a safe environment through daily practices at the Waverly Outdoor Pool. The 2023 team consisted of 81 swimmers, while the previous year it had over 100 swimmers. We had her practice for 5 days and have a total of 19 hours of pool time with 18 coaching sessions each week. With the ability to practice five days a week, swimmers can learn quickly and improve dramatically during a short season.
To make the program a success, we partner with six other small communities to compete as one large team under USA Swimming regulations called the Big Six Swim Club. All seven communities host swim meets at their city pools, and all teams take turns swimming at the end of the summer. Last year we hosted it and 246 swimmers participated.
All of our coaches are USA Swimming certified and our pool is a USA Swimming certified facility, so swim times at competitions can lead to qualification for regional or state level competitions.
Not having access to an outdoor pool will undoubtedly have a negative impact on this partnership, reducing swimming opportunities for our partner communities and potentially leading to the end of our relationship with the Big Six Swim Club and the loss of accreditation for Waverley swimmers. This could lead to access to summer swimming opportunities.
Summer competitions are based on meters. Our outdoor pool has six 25 meter lap lanes, but is also the only pool in our swimming group that has a 50 meter option when swimming east/west. Waverly is the only pool in our group where swimmers can prepare for regional and state competitions her 50 meter pool.
Swimming clubs offer unique opportunities unlike any other sport. Swim club competitions are the only activity that all K-12 siblings can participate in together as a family. For some children, especially those who don't like ball or contact sports, swimming is a great opportunity to join a team and develop endurance and confidence. Swim clubs provide great off-season conditioning for student-athletes, and the basic swimming skills learned at clubs support a healthy lifestyle.
During swim club competitions, people visit Waverly and spend money in our community. Remember the swim-off I mentioned? 203 of the swimmers were from outside Waverley and their families were held for up to six hours, sneaking away for a coffee, visiting a brewery after the event, then getting gas or grabbing lunch. These are the swimmers who were doing things like that. Every time we host a meet, two other communities bring their swimmers to our town and pay to check us out.
If pools don't open this summer, the growing aquatics program will also be faced with some difficult choices.
Even if you can find an indoor pool to practice in, it will be a sub-meter garden pool, leaving swimmers unprepared. He will also no longer be able to host competitions and could be removed from the U.S. Swimming Team.
If we overcome some barriers and practice indoors, we will have to limit the number of participants due to facility limitations.
I am coaching the first winter competitive swimming program (again, referring to the growth program) at Waverly during the winter indoor season, which is limited to 36 participants.
I would also like to talk about the influence of “The W” on the show. The W utilizes the outdoor pool for classes nine times a week during midday and evening lap swim times. These classes provide participants with aquatic fitness and low-impact aerobic exercise. As summer class participants say, they look forward to outdoor aqua classes all year long. These classes are not only physical, but for some, they are also a social engagement that is essential to overall health.
The average daily attendance in 2023 was 19 people.
If the pool is not open, these classes will not be held. The W Aquatic schedule does not allow time for these classes in the indoor pool.
considerations
There are several points that the city council and local residents should be aware of.
If the city won't open the pools, how can the community and youth fill the gap in activities (let's be real) early this summer before the libraries reopen in June or July? We know how the construction will take place, let's say) I think it will be in July)?
If City Council plans to make The W an alternative facility for recreational swimming, the pool could be closed for up to a month in the summer of 2025 due to long-term maintenance that would require the pool to be drained. I am planning to do so.
If you're worried about spending $50,000 to paint your pool, what does Garrett do? [Riordan, the city’s Leisure Services Director] It says it will likely be needed this fall, but that won't preclude it from opening this summer before the cost is incurred.
City Council must recognize that a W or Prairie Links swimming pool is not economically viable for many members of our community, nor is travel to other communities.
How will young families looking for a community accept the lack of public water play facilities? Some may not, but that speaks to the community's priorities.
Finances, communications and future commitments
We have very serious concerns that, while not necessarily deceptive, there is still worrying misinformation being spread throughout the community. Mayor Anderson was heard at a recent House of Commons meeting expressing concern that four inches of chlorinated water is leaking into adjacent ground each day, raising concerns about ground contamination. I once heard Garrett say in a meeting that he wasn't off by two or three inches. I go to the pool 5 days a week and he's one of the first to go to the pool, and I've never seen anything as dramatic as this. Regardless of the quantities cited, we are concerned that we have considered anecdotal evidence and have not considered actual quantitative data, such as historical water use or comparative analysis of known data points on evaporation. .I also want to point out [this]:
– Excess amounts are lost in outdoor pools through droplets and evaporation. With this much deferred maintenance at this age, it's very likely that your pool will develop a leak, but I have serious concerns that it's being made more of a fuss than it really is.
– Concerns about chlorine contamination of groundwater should be compared to drinking water. The EPA safe level limit for chlorine in drinking water is 4.0 PPM (parts per million), but public pools must have chlorine levels of at least 1.0 PPM, whereas Waverly pools typically have between 3 and 5 PPM. It is very similar to drinking water. water.
The question is, which budget?
Looking at the budget for 2024/25 and beyond, it is my understanding that the City is considering permanent cuts to prevent job cuts. If the City Council chooses to keep the pools closed this summer, isn't that a temporary savings? What will happen to the jobs of young people who work in the city?
The debate over the pool has been centered around the 2024/25 budget. The pool will be full and half of the operation will be completed in the 2023/24 financial year, with most of the chemical costs likely to be purchased before 1 July. This makes me want to ask if pools will remain closed as an issue this year. Or a future fiscal year?
At the Feb. 3 budget meeting, it was revealed that the swimming program would have a deficit of $148,700.
This includes $50,000 in capital expenditures that will not have to be incurred until the end of the season.
This includes $102,000 in payroll costs, the majority of which goes into the pockets of the young people who work in our communities to earn wages.
Other common topics in the budget are water and chemicals. His utility bill is $21,600, although he doesn't know the actual cost since there is no specific chemical item in the budget. The purpose of this is that his two most discussed items, water and chemicals, are very small in the overall agenda.
Having been in the seafood industry for over 20 years, I believe there is potential to save on labor costs. As in 2021, we will shorten business hours, relieve staff when attendance is low, and adjust thresholds for closing when temperatures and attendance are low. There may be a slight price increase.
After attending the February 19th meeting, I was left with frustration and two burning questions.
— What in this budget is preventing you from maintaining the pool for the 2023 season?
We've all heard that “the pump might not work,” “the pool might only last half the season,” and “it's not worth the investment in equipment.” It's been a few years, what has changed?
– How is city planning done and how are the future operating costs of the pool, whether renovated or replaced?
—— Now that the city has approved a contract with JEO Consulting to develop a plan for November's referendum, is the city in a position to move forward with opening a pool in the future?
We hope that the City Council truly considers all of the citizens affected by pool closures. Consider:
— Swimmer without a team,
– Young people without a safe place to meet friends and make summer memories,
– Older adults who do not regularly participate in fitness or social activities;
— Local residents have a hard time imagining a community without an essential summer recreation facility, so much so that the header image of the Waverly Leisure Services website is a child swimming.
