After soggy start, city happy with pool season
It took a little while for summer sunshine to hit Kalispell this year, but once it did the Woodland Water Park got rolling and had a strong season, city officials said.
The pool had been scheduled to open June 6, but the rainiest June on record kept the pool closed most of that month and kept most people from even thinking about swimming until early July.
But lengthy stretches of warm, sunny and dry weather through Aug. 26 — the last day of the swimming season— kept the pool busy from there on out, Parks and Recreation Director Mike Baker said.
“When summer started we had an excellent season. The pool was used a lot by the community this summer,” he said.
The pool averaged 340 swimmers a day, up from 308 the year before, Recreation Superintendent Jennifer Young said.
Seasonal pool staffers gave swim lessons to about 800 people this season, an increase of about 50. But the city awarded only three scholarships for low-income families to get reduced-cost lessons, far fewer than hoped for.
“A lot of times if it’s a need we’ll give them 100 percent off ... We’re not going to turn anyone away,” Young said. “Out of all the things we do, I think swimming lessons is the most important thing we provide.”
Total pool revenues were $103,000 for the busiest months of July and August, up from $92,000 the year before. Pool expenditures were $282,277 for fiscal year 2011-12, which ended July 1.
“Outdoor pools for communities are definitely a challenge,” Baker said.
“Realistically, they cost quite a bit of money to operate and maintain and ours isn’t any exception,” Baker said. “But if you look a the number of people who come through the front door and the number of hours of recreation it provides, it pencils out to be pretty reasonable.”
Private party pool rentals outside of regular open-swim and adult-swim hours “saw real increases” this season, with about 50 rentals compared to 14 last year, Young said.
The pool rental program will be re-examined to try and improve it as a revenue source. Presently, the whole pool facility has to be rented out for each private party. And that requires significant staffing, even if the whole pool is not used.
Changes might let people rent one or more specific parts of the pool they want to use — say the lazy river or kiddie pool — and let the city staff the facility accordingly.
“We were averaging about 30 people per party [this season]. We have to staff it for the whole pool, but a lot of the time they would just use the kiddie pool and we would have 10 lifeguards on duty,” Young said. “So we’re looking at changing it to keep the price down and rent just the part people want to use.”
Kalispell also will look for a way to boost season pass purchases, Young said. Only eight season passes were bought this year and about 20 the year before.
Season-pass costs of $72 for children under age 16, $120 for people age 16 and up and $288 for a family may just be too high for a pool open 11 to 12 weeks and for limited hours a day.
“We’re going to do some research and see what other communities are doing,” Young said of the low season-pass numbers.
Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.