Council decision could slash aquatic center hours

Columbus Council declined to approve any of the administration’s ideas for shifting funding to the Columbus Aquatic Center, indicating that the budget would remain at current levels going into fiscal 2017.

At Tuesday’s called work session, Parks and Recreation Director James Worsley and City Manager Isaiah Hugley presented several ideas that would shift funds from within Parks and Rec to increase the center’s budget to about $1.2 million, the level needed to maintain the current 89 hours. Aquatic Center hours will likely be closer to 45 hours a week after fiscal 2017 begins July 1, Hugley said.

The center’s budget would have to be more than $1.2 million to remain fully operational, Worsley has long said. But that would require almost $500,000 more than budgeted, so council several times has instructed the administration to come to them with suggestions for shifting funds.

Hugley had chosen two ideas from among 17 potential sources of revenue to present to council. He suggested taking one-third of 1 percent of the hotel-motel tax proceeds for the center, which would produce about $200,000, and turning over the after-school programs to the school district, which would produce about $300,000.

Councilor Skip Henderson, who is also chairman of the budget review committee, said he could not support either of the ideas and suggested funding remain the same.

“I’ve got some real concerns,” Henderson said. “My vote is going to be to go with what we have.”

After the previous pool operator was fired last year and as Parks and Rec assumed interim control of the center, the city put out for bids to operate the center and selected one company, as yet unidentified because of procurement protocol. That company’s bid was for a little more than $1.2 million. But during negotiations, city leaders asked the company to say what level of service they could offer for the $825,000. The company said 45 hours a week. In addition to cutting the hours about in half, that level of funding would eliminate funding for marketing the center and reduce revenue projections from $525,000 a year to about $220,000.

At a recent meeting of aquatic center stakeholders, Columbus Hurricane Head Coach Jeff Pishko said swimmers in Columbus are blessed to have such a facility, but that cutting back on hours will lessen its appeal.

“This is certainly one of the top five facilities (in the state) for sure,” Pishko said. “But if we get cut back to 45 hours and word gets around, we’ll be very hard-pressed to get any kind of major event going into the future.”

Lightning policy explained

Later in the work session, John Hudgison, interim Inspections and Codes director, made a presentation concerning the decision to eliminate a lightning protection system from the aquatic center when it was under construction.

Pishko said in a story in Monday’s paper that a city policy to halt swimming in the competition pool when lightning is present could cost the center a lucrative state-wide swim meet this summer, and pointed to the eliminated system as the culprit.

But Hudgison said the system was never intended to protect the pool or people in it. It is to protect the building’s electrical and electronic equipment from the huge power surge lightning can cause. It was eliminated as part of an effort to address a $900,000 cost overrun while the center was under construction, Hudgison said.

The presence of the system would make no change in the city’s policy, City Attorney Clifton Fay said. The city’s lightning policy is actually required by the state Department of Public Health’s regulations, which require public pool operators to close the pools when lightning is present, Fay said.

Pishko said he managed to get the meet away from the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, which has hosted it and does not shut down meets when lightning is present. Apparently, Georgia Tech is allowed to do so because, as a state entity, it can seek and be granted a waiver from the regulation, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson said. County entities have no such ability.

This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Council decision could slash aquatic center hours."