By Sara Strong
The Rock County Pool Commission Tuesday voted to recommend a second round of requests for proposals to lease, purchase or manage the Pool and Fitness Center.
The request for proposals earlier this year got no feedback, but Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System asked for an extension to submit a proposal after the deadline.
The Commission hopes this new round of advertising will get more response.
The Rock County Board of Commissioners and the Luverne City Council, as joint owners of the facility, will act on the recommendation.
Luverne City Administrator Matt Hylen objected to advertising again for RFPs because he said the process has dragged on long enough, and interested parties either backed out or missed the deadline.
He said employee morale is slipping because they see their jobs are in question. Hylen said, "It's hard to run a staff with their futures in jeopardy."
Indoor water park?
As the Pool Commission continues exploring options for selling or leasing the facility, it - at the same meeting - discussed a major expansion project in the future.
Pool and Fitness Center Director Darrell Huiskes and Manager Carol Wessels proposed an indoor water park project to the Commission, which as a body said it supported the project as a concept.
The added water park would be a zero-depth to 4-foot-deep pool with slides and would be open year round. The regular pool, open for lap swimming, aerobics and swimming lessons, would still be a part of the facility.
Any sincere planning for the Pool and Fitness Center expansion is on hold until the new round of RFPs are returned, if at all.
The Commission favors the project, because profits from it could make the Pool and Fitness Center self supporting and will no longer require annual county and city contributions.
A preliminary estimate has the county and city each contributing $85,000 in 2003 to the Pool and Fitness Center's budget. Their contribution in 2002 was $72,118.
The Commission directed Huiskes and Wessels to research options to fund the $1.3 million project, but didn't commit to it.
The Commission discussed the possibility of bonding for that amount and putting it to a vote for public approval.
Huiskes said he was very confident that an expansion would allow a $100,000 payback annually after the first full year of operation.
Area outdoor water parks are busy with a steady stream of customers when they're open three months of the year. With Luverne's pool open year-round, its typical 75 users a day could be multiplied and so could the cash flow.
Huiskes said, "The only thing we can offer now is water."
Water parks and added equipment in water are increasingly popular in public and hotel pools.
Huiskes reminded the commission that the priority on pool surveys sent out in 2001 was a child-friendly water park.
Currently, 40 percent of the pool users are from outside the county, so Huiskes said a water park might draw even more traffic to Luverne and be a benefit to the entire community.
Just admission to the water park, Wild Water West in Sioux Falls, S.D., is $45 for a family of four. Visitors usually spend more by purchasing concessions.
In other budget discussion Tuesday, the Commission also decided to recommend $30,000 in new fitness equipment purchases in 2003; increased allotment to a capital improvement fund, that could help if an addition is added, to $15,000; and increased advertising budget to $7,500 to increase use by advertising monthly specials, child care availability or other features of the Pool and Fitness Center.