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Ice rink plan or big fee hikes for Kedron Fieldhouse?Tue, 05/19/2009 - 3:04pm
By: John Munford
A possible outsourcing of Peachtree City’s Kedron Fieldhouse and Aquatic Center will be discussed Thursday night by the City Council. Another option on the table is a plan from the facility’s current staff for multiple changes that would reduce annual expenses at the pool by $300,000, roughly one-third of the facility’s operating expenses. About $100,000 of the savings will come from fee increases, according to the staff members’ proposal. Officials budgeted $936,000 to operate the facility this year with five full-time and 11 part-time staffers. The city has received information from two other entities that would consider operating the facility. Georgia Sports League is proposing to oversee the fieldhouse, which includes meeting rooms and a multi-purpose gym, while having another company manage the pool. Dar Thompson, who owns several local health clubs, has offered a similar proposal, but he wants the city to build an ice rink addition to the facility which could cost between $1.5 and $2 million. Thompson said he is willing to “personally guarantee the cost of the addition.” Thompson, in a letter to the city, argues that the gym is drastically underused for basketball while a ice rink could host hockey tournaments and figure skating competitions to bring tourism money into the city. Georgia Sports League, in contrast, wants to keep the gym and increase revenue by offering more programming at the facility. In a separate item on the agenda, city recreation staff is asking the council to increase pool usage fees that would result in a revenue gain of $98,000 a year. The fee changes wouldn’t be implemented until Sept. 1 because the current fees have already been advertised in the city’s recreation program catalog. The changes would increase daily pool admission $1 for each age category. Children 0-2 would still be free; ages 3-11 would go from $3 to $4; ages 12-64 would go from $4 to $5 and ages 65 and up would go from $2 to $3. Kedron staff are also proposing to change the pool pass program by selling them quarterly instead of twice a year. They would reduce the pool pass fee slightly but because the fee is assessed quarterly there will be an estimated $28,000 in additional income from this change. Another $55,000 in estimated new income would be realized by increasing fees assessed to swim teams that use the Kedron pool, officials said. The fee changes were customized based on the amount of time each team uses the pool, officials said. The Southern Crescent Aquatic Team would see its fee go from the current $5 to $32 a swimmer. High school teams also would pay $32 a swimmer, up from $3. Masters program swimmers would be raised from $5 each to $18 each and the city’s Pirates summer program team would pay $5 per county resident and $10 per out of county resident. login to post comments
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