Officials put forth ideas on how to keep public access to pool

By Scott Merzbach and NICK GRABBE
Staff Writers

Published on September 14, 2007

With public swim programs at the Amherst Regional Middle School pool in danger of sinking because of a dispute over money, town officials may have found a solution.

Town Manager Larry Shaffer said this week that money which could have been used to pay for an aquatics director for the leisure services department could instead go toward defraying the costs of the town's use of the pool.

This is one of the ideas being floated for finding additional money to meet the increased rental obligations, after school Superintendent Jere Hochman said the $30,000 paid by the town in the last year for use of the pool would not cover the school's expenses of having the pool heated and opened during the fall and spring.

Shaffer told the Select Board Monday that he will be working with Linda Chalfant, director of leisure services, to come up with the solution, which could entail this reallocation of money already budgeted.

"I will work closely with the superintendent to see if we can come up with an arrangement that makes sense," Shaffer said.

It is the second time this year that public pool use has floundered because of budget battles. War Memorial Pool opened late this summer because Town Meeting initially refused to provide funding.

In past years, the middle school pool has scheduled lap swimming for adults, lessons for children, aerobics classes, even birthday parties. The municipal budget has paid the school budget $30,000 a year, about the amount raised through fees swimmers paid, Shaffer said.

But that doesn't come close to the amount the schools have to pay for heat, electricity, chemicals and other pool expenses, according to Hochman. He has asked Shaffer to pay more.

"This is a symptom of our overall budgetary problems," said Shaffer. "When budgets are constricted, it makes all entities look at the bottom line."

If not for the community use of the pool, Hochman said it would only need to be open for the high school's swim team competitions in the winter.

Shaffer said he agrees with Hochman's assessment that there are significant costs to keeping the pool open.

"We have come to the conclusion that there were certainly more costs with running the program than the school was being compensated for," Shaffer said.

A main expense at the pool is keeping the water at 81 to 83 degrees, he said. Lowering the temperature, or raising the fees, would risk losing customers and the dollars they pay, he said.

In 2004, the town spent $20,000 for use of the pool, which this year has gone up to $30,000, even while the number of public swimming hours have been cut in half, Chalfant said.

"We did negotiate the $30,000 as a compromise," Chalfant said.

At the previous week's Select Board meeting, Town Meeting member Vince O'Connor decried the situation. Children are at risk of not learning how to swim, and there should have been more public discussion about the funding impasse, he said.

Chalfant noted that the middle school has also lost the Amherst Tritons Swim Team, which is now using a pool at University of Massachusetts.

Board member Alisa Brewer said she would be comfortable with meeting the shortfall using the aquatics director salary.

David Farnham, of Strong Street, said he was surprised when he learned that his family might not be able to enjoy swimming at the pool.

"It's hard to believe that this can't be kept open," he said. "It's the schools' property, paid by our tax dollars. Don't penalize the users of the pool because the town and the superintendent can't agree."

Though the swim programs are at risk, Chalfant said last year they didn't start until Sept. 23, so there remains time to get this worked out.

Shaffer said he thinks the impasse will end before long, and he sympathized with Hochman.

"He has a budget that supports education," Shaffer said. "He has to be mindful that his resources are dedicated to education and not subsidizing recreation."

Meanwhile, Select Board member Anne Awad wanted to know what efforts have been completed for private fundraising to help defray costs of using the pools. Chalfant said about $8,000 has been raised through events such as swim-a-thons since the initiative started in 2004.