Budget cuts slash aquatic center hours by a third

Budget cuts to Mayor Teresa Tomlinson’s proposed fiscal 2017 budget will reduce the hours of service at the Columbus Aquatic Center from the current 89 hours spread over seven days a week to 60 hours spread over six days, Parks and Recreation Director James Worsley told Columbus Council tonight.

Tomlinson had fully funded the center at $1.24 million in her proposed budget, but councilors balked at some of the ways she came up with to raise the money to hike it from last year’s $850,000. She had proposed fee increases at other Parks and Rec programs, such as its after-school program, court rates at Cooper Creek Tennis Center and boat launching fees at the City Marina.

Councilors cut those from the budget, dropping the Aquatic Center’s budget from $1.24 million to about $990,000. Worsley said that amount would fund sixty hours, Monday through Saturday. Worsley said the new hours would by 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. The new hours will take effect on July 1.

Earlier in tonight’s meeting, while councilors were holding a first reading on the city budget, Councilor Glenn Davis attempted to restore some of the facility’s funding by offering a compromise on Tomlinson’s after-school proposal. Instead of raising the fees $4 per child per week, which would have raised $200,000, Davis made a motion to raise the fees $2 per child per week, which would raise $100,000 and bring the aquatic center budget up to almost $1.1 million.

But that motion died in a 6-2 vote, with Councilors Mike Baker, Pops Barnes, Judy Thomas, Bruce Huff, Walker Garrett and Mimi Woodson voting against it and Davis and Evelyn Turner Pugh voting for it. Councilors Gary Allen and Skip Henderson were absent.

Several Councilors said they did not like the idea of taking money from other programs to use at the Aquatic Center. But Tomlinson said they were misconstruing the proposal.

“I think that the revenue that I proposed to fund the aquatic center was lost in the concept that somehow it was raising fees on these people in order to pay for those people,” Tomlinson said. “Really, it was more revenue maintenance across the board. When you do regular revenue maintenance, you have more funds to do various things.”

Tomlinson said under-funding the Aquatic Center will likely prevent it from being all it can be. Fewer hours means less programming which means less revenue generated, she said.

“I truly believe that if we would fund the Aquatic Center at what is clearly required for one year, we would see it blossom into the economic development catalyst that we always thought it would be and the community always thought it would be, and it would go a long way toward taking care of itself,” Tomlinson said. “As long as we continue to underfund it, it will continue limp along and we will never get the full benefit of it and it will never be able to reap the revenues it is capable of.”

Davis agreed, but in a failed attempt to sway his peers.

“We’ve got a world-class facility next door, and the only way for it to be successful is to keep it open,” Davis said. “Certainly it’s going to mean a change in the budget, but I just feel at this point, it’s not being used to its maximum and ultimately it could lose its momentum.

“I don’t want to see that happen.”

This story was originally published June 7, 2016 at 8:49 PM with the headline "Budget cuts slash aquatic center hours by a third."