With better management, a different deal with the city and a small capital investment, Joe Cimino thinks the Dow Pool can be a success.
Cimino and other members of the Dow Pool Lifesavers committee will be making a presentation to the priorities committee of council tonight.
The group wants council to reopen the pool for a one-year trial. If given the chance, Cimino said, the committee is confident they, in partnership with the city, can make a go of it.
?We brought in a structural engineer, an electrician and a roofer and we looked at the business operation,? he said. ?Really, we don?t believe the pool was optimized.?
Cimino said the committee discovered the capital investments needed to bring the pool up to snuff won?t cost the $200,000 city staff had estimated. That estimate included upgrades to the electrical system, the deck and a new roof.
?The electrical problem wasn?t as bad as they said it was, and the roof would last at least five years. We could run a ?put up the roof? capital fundraising campaign.?
Cimino said fundraising events could be used to pay for capital improvements.
Capital needs aside, Cimino is confident the ?small? operating deficit of about $27,000 per year the pool was posting when it closed could be made up. Optimized hours, memberships, partnerships with business and interested groups could make the pool viable.
He said ideally the city would staff the pool and cover the operational costs, including utilities and the lion?s share of any budget involving things that move, the insurance bill.
His group would ?assertively? collect memberships, run the pool?s programs, marketing, and use private sector partnerships to cover capital costs.
The Lifesaver committee conducted a poll and found if the pool were opened tomorrow, there would be 500 people lined up for memberships.
The Dow Pool, before it was closed last June as a cost saving measure along with Barrydowne and Falconbridge Arenas and Lively and Adanac Ski Hills, was operated for the city by the YMCA.
Budget documents indicate the city spent just over $75,000 in the first six months on utilities and insurance.
According to YMCA Sudbury CEO John Schmidt, the Dow Pool ran a direct cost loss of about $8,000 in each of the six years they operated it.
Indirect costs to the YMCA such as payroll, accounting fees and insurance ran another $6,000 or $7,000 annually.
?Craig Gilbert
