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Lake Stevens reports $32,000 operating shortfall at The Mill in 2024; staff propose fee changes and efficiency measures
Summary
Parks and Recreation presented a 2024 usage and finance summary for The Mill showing $82,164 in rental revenue but a $32,000 deficit for public rentals after staff costs; staff outlined policy and operational changes to reduce the gap.
Sarah Garceau, Lake Stevens parks and recreation director, told the City Council that the department’s 2024 financial analysis for The Mill counted 59 public rentals, $82,164 in rental revenue and, after allocating facility and parks staff costs, a roughly $32,000 operating shortfall on the public side of rentals.
Garceau said the department’s analysis "is set up assuming a 70% availability for public rentals in this building, while 30% of the time it is reserved for city only business." That allocation was used to apportion shared building expenses to public rentals. She said the department allocated 70% of communications, operations, repair and utilities to the public side (about $23,300) and assigned $90,007.94 in staff costs to the public-rental share for the year.
The council was shown cost and revenue breakdowns in the staff report. Garceau said the books did not easily yield cancellation fees for 2024, so those revenues were not included but are expected to be minimal and could be added next year. She noted some after-hours callout costs — for example, three-hour minimums when public works must respond to alarm issues — were not included in the figures.
Garceau described recent policy changes and operational steps aimed at reducing the deficit. In late 2024 the city moved to a four-month advance booking limit for individual rooms, to prioritize full-facility reservations. She said full-facility rentals can still be booked up to two years in advance. She also noted the rental fee schedule was increased (effective 2025) and that applying the 2025 fees to 2024 bookings would have increased revenue by about $20,700, reducing the hypothetical 2024 deficit to about $11,000.
Other efficiency steps Garceau outlined include requiring payment up front to reduce staff follow-up, moving to group tours and open houses to show the facility to prospective renters, automating reservation workflows via the CivicRec database (migrated in January), and reevaluating the facility maintenance technician cleaning schedule with public works.
Council members asked about occupancy and maximum capacity; Garceau said she has counts of reservations by room and time blocks but has not yet produced an exact occupancy or utilization percentage because of booking interactions (for example, renting Hartford Hall blocks the Stack). She offered to circulate more detailed breakdowns by request. When asked about the farmers market, Garceau said the market operates under a city contract awarded by RFP, does not pay cash rent, and the department’s breakeven analysis showed the market operated in the positive last year.
Garceau said the department’s short-term goal for 2025 is to "operate at cost" for The Mill and to continue monitoring revenue, staffing and utility costs as cost-of-living adjustments and higher utilities affect future budgets.
Ending: Councilmembers asked for the more detailed room-by-room reservation data Garceau offered to provide; no formal direction or vote was taken during the workshop on The Mill finances or fee policy.
