So the People’s Republic of Amherst can subsidize a Golf Course but not an Indoor Pool? The same public recreation superstar Barbara Bilz—the ace reliever called in to save Cherry Hill--was formerly charged with reviving and expanding indoor pool operations at the Middle School Pool.
The first thing marketing whiz Ms Bilz did was to change its name to the ‘Amherst Community Aquatics Center’ and hyped the “expanded hours and programs” and “warmer pool temperatures.”
Of course, something as huge as an Olympic pool is pretty expensive to heat and the swim team (the reason the pool was built in the first place) actually prefer the cheaper-to-maintain cooler temperatures, as they tend to work pretty hard in the water.
Last year the total overhead for the pool was $85,000 (vs. $243,000 for Cherry Hill) with the schools utilizing it slightly less than half the time and LSSE, our Recreation Empire, occupying the lion’s share.
The Schools cut them some slack on overhead charging them only $30,000 for FY07. The town has yet to pay that bill. I hope the schools charge the same 12% interest rate the town is currently charging Dave Keenan on his back taxes.
Interestingly when Ms. Bilz took over the ailing Cherry Hill Golf Course (if you consider her one-quarter time commitment taking over) the first thing she did was hype new programs to attract more customers—specifically women and children (note cover of the current issue of the LSSE brochure).
Last year, however, the Golf Course required $24,432 in tax support and currently is on target to lose at least that amount this year. Interestingly this year we could have had a GUARANTEED $30,000 in profit if the Town Manager had accepted the Niblik Management bid to privatize Cherry Hill.
That way the golf course could have stayed open and the town could have simply redirected that $30,000 to the schools to keep the Middle School Pool (now that LSSE gave up on it, I assume its name reverts back) available for all Amherst citizens—especially children.
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