Swim fees sunk, for now
Kids will swim free in Spokane this summer.
The Spokane Park Board pulled the plug Thursday on a $1 youth admission by voting 6-0 in favor of maintaining a long tradition of free swimming at Spokane city pools.
Citizens told the board that the pools provide a safe, healthy activity in the summer, and that charging admission would hurt children. “It’s a legacy I am proud has been maintained for so many years,” said former Mayor Sheri Barnard.
Board member Mike Howson said it was wise to drop the fee plan now since parks officials are hoping to go to voters later this year and ask their approval for millions of dollars in pool and park improvements.
A new $15 million aquatics center and three other leisure pools are expected to be included in a ballot measure this fall.
Board members also pointed out that good fiscal management and extra revenue from a popular IMAX movie, “Polar Express,” left the Parks Department with more money than expected at the start of 2005. That money will be used to make up the $50,000 to $60,000 that would have come from summer swim fees.
For years, parks officials have sought youth swimming fees to offset a $600,000 annual tax subsidy needed to operate the city’s aging, high-maintenance pools. It costs the city $8 per swimmer visit.
Shadle Park’s outdoor pool and the city’s wading pools are being closed in 2005, leaving five outdoor pools and the Shadle indoor pool open for public use. Wading pool closures are being forced by a new state requirement that they be posted with lifeguards, officials said.
The long tradition of free swimming was interrupted only in 1982 when a 35-cent admission was levied on children. The City Council pressured the Park Board, which rescinded the fees in 1983.
The Spokane Park Board has turned back other fee proposals over the years, most recently in the mid-1990s.
Spokane resident Erin Kennedy said she worked as a lifeguard at Liberty Pool last summer and saw the same kids day after day. She said it was her belief that many of the children from the East Central Neighborhood there would not have been able to afford the $1 charge.
“City pools provide a safe, wholesome environment,” Kennedy said. “I just think this is a very poor decision,” she said of the proposed fees.
Melissa Griffith, another city resident, said she grew up in northeast Spokane near the Spokane River, and a lot of kids in the neighborhood might have risked swimming in the river if it hadn’t been for free swimming.
She and her friend, Teresa Cuevas, are working as interns in a county drug and alcohol prevention program, and they both said free swimming provides an alternative to the dangers of illicit street behavior.
“Don’t do it to our children,” Cuevas said of the fee proposal.
Jack Pearson, a former city police officer, said he favored fees because the money would allow the parks department to increase programs for children.
Board member Frank Knott abstained from voting on the fees. He said he supported the charges because the Spokane Parks Foundation was ready to provide swimming scholarships for low-income children.
He pointed out that the 109-year-old Kids of Summer program was eliminated for 2005 as part of wide-ranging budget cuts and fee increases for city parks and recreation services in 2005.
Spokane County charges a $1 daily swimming fee for all ages, while Spokane Valley charges $1 to children 6 and older.