Schenectady committee weighs pool fee rules, recommends residents-only access for 2025 season

Schenectady City’s Health & Recreation committee discussed whether to charge nonresidents for pool use and how to implement a payment system, ultimately moving toward a residents-only rule for the coming season while deferring a nonresident fee decision to a later budget cycle. The committee held the discussion as a follow-up to prior meetings about pool rules, staffing and equipment needs.

Committee members and parks staff said the city lacks the data and operational capacity to stand up a paid-entry system in time for the 2025 season. A parks official said the city’s short, weather-dependent pool season—about nine weeks—makes it unlikely that a nonresident fee would fully offset operating costs. "We would not be collecting fees that are going to offset the cost of our pool," the Parks Director said during the meeting.

The committee chair said members had previously agreed that city residents should not pay to use the pools and that the primary question remained whether to allow nonresidents with a fee. "I think we were all pretty much in agreement that residents would not be paying a fee," a Committee member said. Committee members and staff agreed to defer any roll‑out of a paid-entry system until they can collect usage data this season and present a…