Our Olympic Pool
Lot's of talk lately from the city complaining about the pool and casino not making money. It seems that, once again, Maxwell and compatriots are insisting that our pool make money. Well, in order to do that, we need to market it. We need to bring in events. Nothing has been done about our pool but complain about it not making money. And they have been doing that for YEARS. Voila...Hudson Holdings is the answer--they can cement it in and take over our complex and we will no longer have to worry about it...just another responsibility off our plate. What a nutty idea. And it goes right back directly to City Manager Bornstein when he first was hired by calling our pool a "White Elephant." If you don't believe in something, it won't happen.
When you incorporate and become a city,
you agree at that point to provide certain services--police, fire
rescue, street sweeping, playgrounds, etc. Not all of these services
make money: The library (something else they always complain about), all of our parks, our baseball fields, the
beach, the soccer fields, the Osborne Center,
our golf course, roads, and street lighting as examples. We had a
trolley for the elderly, the poor and the infirmed. It didn’t make money
so one of the worst commissions we ever had eliminated that service.
Not everything we do as a City must be self-supporting. We pay taxes to
cover all those that are not. Our pool is no more a liability than any other service or
recreation that we provide and we can turn it around to make money. The city can't maintain it? Why not? They just gave the city manager a $10,000 raise. Manage. Do the job.
We
have had a pool for years. I remember when it was a salt water pool.
Because the pool has not been managed or marketed, it has not been
sustainable. The purpose of the pool renovation and spending $425,000
was to attract national meets that could have brought in plenty of money
to Lake Worth. Our businesses would be booming. Our motels and bed and breakfasts would be at capacity. Swim teams would come here to train. Perhaps it could be a motivating factor for the Gulfstream to reopen but oh, no, Hudson wants our casino complex in their control and they are using it as leverage to get their way.
Let's get real folks. We residents want our Olympic pool. We don't want Hudson or any other "holdings" on our public beach complex. Stop listening to the naysayers out here who want our beach to fail. Haven't you had about enough of them? That's the white elephant in the room.
30 comments:
Not so sure that swim teams could solve our downtown business owners problems.....should they really be our target demographic?
we have 65% of our citizens not paying taxes. we cannot afford these amenities. if you had done a little research you would know that our pool cannot host big competitions because of its lack of depth not to mention other deficiencies. better to park your snide remarks but then you are all about that.
Business owners can't really rely on anyone but themselves to get the business downtown and have a product that everyone wants to buy. Our city has events to help drive people to the downtown. I think they do a lot.
Swim teams will rent out the pool and bring in a lot of money. Teams have to stay somewhere and they have to eat. They will drive in visitors to our beach, pool and to our downtown.
@ 11:10--I always get a kick out of you for NEVER really having your facts straight. 65%???? WOW.
High school and college competitive swimming is 25 yards. To envision this, think of lanes going across on the width on the above photo as these swimmers are doing, not the length. For international swim competitions, they swim 50 meters which is the length of our new pool.
Let's get the facts straight before you come over here with all this "knowledge."
What hotel would they stay at? Since you are against the Gulfstream do you have any suggestions?
We do need to be careful and prudent with our limited funds. And it is true that a majority of properties in this City do not pay City taxes. That IS a problem and its a problem when it comes to maintaining our parks, our ball fields, our gym, and yes our pool too. But why the focus always on the pool and not our other recreation facilities. How much do we spend on the osborne gym, how much money does it make? Let's get these numbers out before we assess whether the pool is really a drain on resources or not.
We just spent loads of money have the pool repaired and renovated, I don't understand why anyone in a leadership position would be in favor of changing the pool. Many administrations have been anti-pool for many years which makes no sense to me. Our children need to learn how to swim, drowning is a major cause of child death in Florida.
It would be great to see more use of the pool, but the lack of use is really due to the fact that its hardly open and not advertised at all. The pool used to be very well used which means that it can be again.
Where do you make up this stuff? Against the Gulfstream? No. Wrong. What I am against is building over 45 feet. The only one who seems to be against the Gulfstream is the owner as he hasn't done one thing in nearly a year since he bought it.
The motels will be at 100% occupancy 365 days a year because we have a pool. This is the best one yet. What's the break even on the pool? How much will this marketing cost? Seems like a lot of labor and maintaining to me. But what do Trained officials know your the business expert. Some of your ideas are like those limp noodles people use to keep afloat. Any other answer would help fill the motels except the one you just gave us. Get with it and stop writing to just get reactions out of people. Bring some substance. I'm going to the beach now. Makes me a stronger swimmer.
Don't forget your noodle, Wes.
A "lot of labor and maintaining to me..."
Yeah, that's something the city just can't handle. Their jobs. What did you have to say of substance, anonymous at 12:58? More of the same. Can't handle it, can't maintain it, don't have enough staff, no money, no vision. Got it.
The pool is a fantastic amenity, unequalled on the east coast of Florida. If it operates slightly in the red, that is obviously because of the lack of expertise of the City Manager and his Economic Development Director in marketing it and making a profit there.
Perhaps they don't want it to be successful so that we can be 'saved' by the latest out of town developer.
The deficit is a mere pittance compared to all the revenue lost by the existence of the CRA and its intrusion into the heart of our City's potential revenue stream, the downtown from A street to Golfview, and north to 3rd avenue N, and 1 block to the south.
How much revenue did the pool bring in 10 years ago? I assume the answer isn't that different now. If we were able to provide recreational facilities that cost money 10 years ago why the focus on revenue now and why only the focus on the pool? Could it be that its the only facility that a private developer has any interest in (b/c its at our beach) and that is why we have to hear how that the pool loses money each month.
I don't know Lynn, I guess times have changed. When I was in Jr. High, and Highschool we always swam in a 50 meter pool. It was 50 meter meets, 100meter meets, and 200 meter metes. And all where at the Boys Club, or the YMCA and indoors because it was up North. I guess they ha shortened the length of pools in the last forty years.
Ours is a 50 meter pool. It's an Olympic size pool. There are different size pools in different places.
Now if you were in a 200 meter meet, more than likely it was a 50 meter pool and you swam the length 4 times.
We have a big pool.
Yes a big pool that very few people use.
Instead of complaining that people don't use the pool, have the city give us reasons why that is. People DO use the pool. We just need more of them.
The pool is open, at most, half time. The hours and days open have fluctuated wildly such that most people have no idea when it IS open. Many people would use the pool if it was open at suitable hours for exercise and training and if people understood the set up. When can one go and swim laps, who the heck knows since the City web site doesn't say, when are there swim lessons, when is the pool used by swim team, etc. None of this information is readily available such that most people have no idea that they can access the pool for these uses.
So, limit the pool hours, provide little to no information about pool use and then complain people don't use the pool. See how that works?!
You say the reason the pool doesn’t make money goes right back to the job Mike Bornstein is doing as city manager? You also said he doesn’t believe in the pools potential to generate revenue when he called the pool a white elephant, then you said “if you don’t believe in something it won’t happen. Yes, Mike was rewarded with an $198.41 a week raise which still makes him one of the lowest paid manages in the county for a city our size. Stanton was getting paid even more than he’s now being paid and she had a highly paid assistant that Mike doesn’t have. Stanton was being paid $150,000 per year, plus an assistant in 2009. Over 6 years ago. You say that we don’t want the pool to make money but the reason it’s not is because Mike once said it’s a white elephant and if a person doesn’t believe in something “it won’t happen”. Of all the people who came out and spoke in favor of Bornstein’s management, community involvement and people skills only one person spoke that she didn’t like the job and direction he was moving this city in. Who was that lone city resident who doesn’t like the leadership skills LW finally has now? A former city commissioner who has now become known for her comment made at a public meeting telling a city resident that he’s just going to have to get use to living in a ghetto in our city. So that’s why LW went backwards during that era? They didn’t want us to be better, they didn’t believe we could, so that’s why “it didn’t happen”. You left the meeting early, you didn’t want to hear what the people want in a city manager. Perhaps you yearn for a city manager who had to remain behind locked doors, who didn’t want to involve herself in the community, eat and interact with our local residents, business owners and the rank and file city workers around town. I was not a Stanton hatter but I wish she could have brought more to the table. She didn’t. When a $13 Million Dollar oceanfront real estate development with no land cost added to the project is losing money, and it’s been like that even before we spent the $13 Million to get what we now have over there continues to go backwards, maybe we should take a look at a few other ideas.
yawnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
Oh please, Bornstein fired Margoles because Scott hated her. Don't give me your crap. Stanton was worth more money. She got our accounts in the black and negotiated contracts to save money. Bornstein now has us spending more than we make and going through reserves. Maybe they should have reduced his salary.
@5:37--you just won't quit on the ghetto comment. No one went backwards in this city. The developers are out in force today. LOL
There will always be developers in every city. That's how city's get built. Do you think the home you live in just magically appeared from thin air? I'm sorry but I don't understand your logic
Our city IS built.
You know there's an old saying in Florida, "you can't live off the sunshine"
Why do we have the golf course sitting on our beautiful intercostal so that the privileged white rich folks can do there thing while we don't have parks for our kids to play west of dixie? How awesome would to be to make half of it a organic farm? We would make money and get healthy non gmo food for the community and make jobs also.if they say we can't make enough money then we can make them to allow some apartments along lakeside that's why I said for only half of the golf course.I know that we need tax dollars so we probably should have some money coming in
This is a great comprise for all off us.
Ain't gonna happen. Go to work and pay taxes. Get off of your food stamps and welfare checks and medicaid. That would be a starter towards a more successful country that you folks have ruined, not only in the eyes of normal Americans, but in the world. January 2017...can't wait. Hope and change to get our country back.
Yes, our city IS built and when people first arrive here, they marvel at how beautiful the location is and how much they love the diversity and the people and the art vibe and the cottage houses. In the next breath, they start talking about how they plan to CHANGE the city. If the city was so wonderful when you first arrived that you had to stay, then why do you want to CHANGE things here? If you don't like it here, move to Delray or Boca or Boynton or Lantana. Lantana has big lots. Change things THERE but don't think you can come here, and "pave paradise and put up a high rise." Just kick the dust off your feet and move along. As an aside, I notice many license plates from California, this year. The man across the street, just moved here from California. He says he is a developer. I cringed. Why are you here, I ask. You know the humidity is heavy here, not like California. He says, he's leaving Cali because it's a dried up, big parking lot now. O_O Dude, I said, developers built that and now you want to come here and do the same? You're in for a fight, I told him and he laughed. Watch out for the Californians.
Lynn,
Why would you tell someone to get a job and pay taxes, get off welfare and food stamps? What makes you think that person fits the profile you automatically assign to them? Because they live west of Dixie? Because they believe an organic farm is a better use of the land than a golf course that poisons our waterways with pesticides and toxic fertilizers?
The person who posted made excellent points that I completely agree with. You're right, it will never happen. But you didn't have to make the other remarks that you made. Do they apply to me as well? I apparently fit the profile.
Thank you, Laurel. Socialists are a special category on to themselves. :)
and I completely DISAGREE with everything you said. Next, I have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to finger pointing at a certain section of our city. Deadbeats are everywhere and believe that beautiful assets should be destroyed for chicken farms or even believe that developers should be allowed to build to the damn sky, ruining our beach, ruining our downtown, etc. I don't discriminate when I talk a bout deadbeats, rich or poor.
The license plates are issued to car rental companies not tourists or greedy developers from California.
Don't worry about the developer from California, he's only living temporarily until he finds a permanent residence and will use the property as a rental. He's waiting on closing for his place in a respectable and decent part of town or Boynton-Delray.
Post a Comment