Get the facts right on ARC | Letter

Published 6:02 am Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Recently, I attended a Kirkland Park Board meeting and I spoke about the real costs of operating municipal pools and community centers. I have managed several public pools and community centers in my career. I questioned the revenue projections the city is using for the proposed ARC.
Pools and community centers generally require subsidies for their operation.

The following week, Jennifer Schroder, Kirkland Director of Parks and Community Services, wrote in a letter to the Kirkland Reporter that Lynnwood, Federal Way and Vancouver all had pools and community centers that operated in the black. I took the time to call these agencies and the are not profitable and they do not operate in the black.

I called the business manager for Vancouver. Vancouver has two pools, one is 50 years old and requires significant subsidies. The other pool is nine years old and has a 95 percent cost recover, but does not include some of their direct overhead costs.

I called the city of Lynnwood and talked with their pool manager. He laughed when I asked him whether the pool was profitable. He said they operate their pool and community center 24/7, barely have time to clean it or keep it up, and they have about 80 percent cost recovery and this includes staff costs and not overhead.

So when we hear that the ARC will make 104 percent cost recovery for on-going operating expenses, you, the voter should be highly skeptical of Kirkland’s projections. It makes you wonder what else they are telling us about the proposed costs of building and operating a community pool.

Patrick Harris, Kirkland