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Tenafly council debates pool funding plan, open-space transfer and nonresident fees
Summary
Council members and staff discussed whether to use $180,000 from the boroughopen-space fund to cover nonpayroll pool costs, proposals to make Alpine users pay nonresident rates immediately, and plans to form a self-funding utility for the pool in 2026.
Tenafly Mayor Adam and council members spent the budget meeting weighing how to keep the borough pool open while limiting a projected property-tax increase.
Mayor Adam said pool revenues submitted so far total about $175,000 and an additional $18,000 in commitments has been received, bringing the known receipts to roughly $193,000. He proposed using $180,000 from the boroughopen-space fund to cover the poolnonpayroll costs this year and to create a municipal utility intended to make the pool self-funding in 2026.
The proposal drew immediate debate about fairness and fiscal risk. Councilman John objected that using open-space money would shift funds away from projects intended for long-term outdoor preservation and said the council had not agreed previously to that funding source. John said, "We said this was going to be something that we were going to be willing to pay as a town because town people use it," and added he feared wasting open-space dollars if the pool failed in year two.
Staff and the recreation director, Jamie, described membership counts and revenue expectations. Jamie reported there were 65 family resident memberships and 16 nonresident family memberships and said online signups produced a large volume of registrations overnight. Jamie also said recreation programs and facility memberships are part of the departmenttrust and can help fund projects over time.
Mayor Adam and other council members pressed staff to treat Alpine(nearby municipality) users as nonresidents going forward. Adam said, "Effective today, they should be paying the nonresident rate," and instructed staff to implement the new charging policy for future registrations, while acknowledging that the borough would not seek retroactive payments for residents who already registered at the resident rate.
Council members discussed alternatives if the council declined the open-space appropriation: raising revenue elsewhere in the operating budget, searching for shared-service agreements with Alpine, or accepting a higher tax rate. David (staff member) and Susan (staff member) explained that any new shared-services revenue would not likely be in time to be anticipated in the 2025 budget but could be added if an agreement were reached later.
Several council members said the priority is to keep the pool operating while limiting long-term taxpayer exposure. David and staff said they would return with more precise numbers, a short-term operations plan, and potential revenue-sharing alternatives, and Jamie said she would bring an opening and operational plan to a council meeting in the coming month.
Ending: The council did not take a formal vote during the meeting. Members asked staff to refine revenue estimates, present a written plan for the pool's operations and utility structure, and pursue a shared-services conversation with Alpine; a re-appropriation of funds from capital/open-space was presented as a near-term option for the mayor and some council members.
