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Council hears proposals to raise HomeCourt and Meridian Pool fees; staff to return with cost-recovery detail
Summary
Recreation staff proposed $1 increases to HomeCourt and Meridian Pool day-pass prices and membership adjustments intended to align with a seven-visit-a-month cost-recovery assumption; council asked for breakdowns showing nonresident vs. resident use and alternatives such as more rental revenue from outside users.
Garrett, recreation staff, presented proposed fee changes for HomeCourt and the Meridian Pool at the council meeting. For HomeCourt, Garrett proposed raising drop-in day passes by $1 across tiers (from $2/$3/$4 to $3/$4/$5) and adjusting membership prices using a roughly seven-visits-per-month breakeven methodology that mirrors the facility’s cost-recovery model.
For the Meridian Pool, Garrett proposed similar $1 increases for day passes and modest increases to lesson and membership fees tied to cost-recovery goals. He said lessons are treated as programs that should cover 100% of direct costs, while open-swim times have historically required subsidies: "When we do open swim ... we do lose money on open swim. This helps us narrow that gap in the subsidy of the public swim times," Garrett said.
Council members asked for more detail on the cost-recovery analysis and for a resident vs. nonresident breakdown; Garrett said point-of-sale data from the Rec1 system can produce those splits, and staff can model scenarios such as raising nonresident fees one additional dollar while leaving youth/resident rates lower. Several council members said they were comfortable with modest increases if staff can show the changes align with the city's cost-recovery policy and protect access for youth and seniors. Garrett said staff will return with revised fee schedules and the requested cost-recovery detail before an adoption vote.
