Voters to decide fate of aquatics center

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

While there are a number of issues on today’s general election ballot, easily the most controversial is the bond issue for a proposed Van Wert Aquatics Center.

Depending on which side of the issue one is on, the proposed project is either a “can’t live without” new recreational asset for the community or a financial albatross around the necks of city taxpayers. Reality, when considered for this project, likely lies somewhere in the middle of those two extremes of opinion.

The City of Van Wert is currently seeking voter approval of a 1.7-mill, 25-year bond issue to pay for the estimated $3 million cost of the aquatics center. While a number of people, including several local businesses, are supporting the project, some organized opposition has also come to the forefront on the issue.

Concerns expressed include the depressed local economy, the financial viability of the project and a perceived lack of specific information on the project.

Opponents say a lot has changed since Van Wert lost its last community swimming pool decades ago: the economy is fragile, other water recreational facilities, including private pools, the YMCA’s Camp Clay Aquatic Park and local campgrounds, have been developed to replace the old swimming pool, and the community is aging, with fewer children. Opponents also don’t like the idea that a specific design has not been decided on for the project.

Van Wert Mayor Don Farmer, who has become somewhat of a lightning rod for social media comments on the project, has spearheaded the project. He and other proponents of the issue say the project would create jobs, make the community a better place to live and also more attractive to development, and give young people and adults a great summer recreational facility.

He also said that more specific information can’t be provided on the project, because the design could change to ensure that its cost not exceed the estimated $3 million the bond issue would raise.

The cost, for city property owners, is relatively small: approximately $33 annually for the owner of an “average” city house valued at $79,000 (about $41 for the owner of a $100,000 home). If approved, the project is scheduled to open during the summer of 2015 and would include slides, a “sprayground” area and other unique water recreation features, as well as a traditional lap pool that could also be used for outdoor swim meets.

Opponents question, though, whether the project is financially workable, citing a feasibility study that calls for a daily pool census of approximately 170 per day over an 80-day season and season pass sales of 438 (219 family, 131 individual adults and 88 individual children) – numbers they say is unrealistic, based on experience seen at the YMCA’s Camp Clay water park.

During a conversation earlier this summer with the Van Wert independent, YMCA Executive Director Hugh Kocab acknowledged that, while Camp Clay had as many as 600 people at the water park this summer on free swim days sponsored by local businesses and organizations, days where people had to pay $4 to swim ranged from approximately 150 to less than 40.

“Without business sponsorship, we couldn’t make it,” Kocab added.

Proponents of the proposed city aquatics center cite the success of the Wapakoneta water park, built back in 2008, which brought in more than double the estimated peak attendance and earned a profit of more than $30,000 in 2010. However, other Auglaize County pools didn’t do as well that year. A renovated pool in St. Marys lost $7,000 that year, while a New Bremen community pool lost $3,000. The Bryson Pool in Celina, an older traditional swimming pool, lost $30,000 in 2010, according to figures provided by Brandstetter Carroll.

Mayor Farmer said he is confident  the operational figures for the Van Wert aquatics center will allow it to operate in the black. He said he has been conservative in estimating operating revenues for the aquatics center project, adding that he cut operating revenue estimates provided by Brandstetter Carroll for the new pool by 23 percent.

“We’re not interested in a profit, but we want to break even,” he said during a recent interview on WERT/WKSD Radio.

Proponents of the aquatics center also noted that it’s hard to compare the proposed facility to Camp Clay or any other current local water park, citing a substantial number of differences between what is planned in Van Wert and those facilities.

Kocab also said this summer that business sponsorships would likely move to the new facility, helping provide revenues for the aquatics center, although at the expense of the Camp Clay water park. “We would probably have to close the doors on our water park,” he said at that time.

Local officials say they have also learned from the problems associated with the former city-county swimming pool, which closed because of a lack of maintenance funding and operating losses.

Area businesses and organizations have pledged approximately $1.2 million to provide money to maintain the new aquatics center, while Van Wert native and philanthropist Scott Niswonger has pledged an additional $70,000 as “seed money” for a fund that could be used to make up any operating losses at the center.

In the final analysis, voters will decide today whether they think a new aquatics center is a good idea.