All dressed up in teeny adorable Crocs, baggy swim diapers and those little sunglasses with the strap to keep them on, where’s a toddler to go for some summertime water fun this year?
The mayor’s office announced today that, due to mid-year budget cuts, the Wallingford wading pool will be operating with reduced hours beginning June 30th through August 20th: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, noon – 7 pm.
Green Lake’s wading pool (along with those of Magnuson, Lincoln, Van Asselt, and Volunteer Parks) will remain open seven days/week. Ravenna, View Ridge and several other pools are closed. See the Seattle Parks Department web site for the complete schedule.
It’s a sad necessity but at least this way we’ll know where to go on which days when the sun is hot and the kids need to cool down (a different question – when will those days be here??).
I find this news sort of laughably absurd. I don’t have kids and I don’t spend a lot of time at wading pools, so could someone please tell me what goes into operating one? To me, cutting back the hours of a cement hole filled with water doesn’t seem like it’s going to save much money.
well, you have to pay the attendant, pay for the chlorine, pay for daily water and extra refilling during the day due to splashing and evaporation. Operating fewer days and fewer hours means less expense for all of those, I would guess.
It might be the salaries of the pool monitors who check the chlorine levels, put out the toys, keep down the roughhousing, etc. But I’d have to check exactly what the funds are used for.
Helen,
Will you find out what it would take money-wise to restore the Wallingford wading pool hours? A direct quote from someone at Parks like the acting Superintendent. An a la carte budget item. I would like to explore finding generous wading pool fairies . . .
A Friend of Wallingford Playfield
Yes, there is the cost of hiring of a college student to monitor the pool and check the water quality to keep the Health Department happy and, yes, there is the expense of the water to fill the pool and keep it topped off. However, this seems to be one of those “savings considered in a vacuum” kind of things.
The environmental cost of the water will only be shifted to the hundreds of little wading pools and sprinklers that families will put in their backyard to make up for not having Wallingford open. Perhaps SPU would be willing to help support the park pools in the interest of water conservation?
It seems that the college student could be an AmeriCorps volunteer.
I, too, would be interested in the cost of operation needed to keep the pool open seven days.
Another Friend of Wallingford Playfield
The wading pool reductions save a grand total of $200,000 in the 11.7 million dollar mid year shortfall, which is expected to expand to 56 million next year, out of a 905 million dollar general fund budget. Wading pools are a rounding error as far as city government is concerned.
Gosh, if it made any kind of sense and certainly any kind of impact, I’d be willing to pay a nominal fee to let my kids cool off. Better to give it to the Parks then have to pay for it via my water bill, and a heck of a lot cheaper.
This is what happens when you elect a gossip columnist to be your City Council’s Budget Chair.
THANK YOU @Doug! Well said. I attended the public meeting at North Seattle Community College a few weeks back and every time Godden opened her mouth it reinforced my opinion of her vapidness and lack of big picture thinking. I was appalled.
I too would like to find sponsors and donors to keep the pool open 7 days a week. If cutting wading pools saves only $200,000 and there are roughly 15 affected pools, that is approximately $13K per pool. If we need to cover 4 days a week for 8 weeks of summer, that’s roughly $400 per day that we would need to raise. I think it’s entirely do-able!
Another way to look at it would be that if we can raise roughly $3K, we could have the pool open 4 days a week all summer. And while we are at it, I would like to wading pool to be open through Labor Day! It’s currently scheduled to close 8/20.
If someones step up and meet with Parks people to get this ball rolling in a sanctioned way, the search for wading pool fairies will begin in earnest. This would be setting a precedent but for this unique park feature maybe that is not a bad thing. Probably wouldn’t hurt to talk with our new Mayor as well . . .
Our city needs to get organized for “decline management” We need to find a way for parents, library patrons and others who are able get a chance to offer money and/or time to staff and fund those services the city doesn’t have funds to provide. Many were glad to see their taxes lowered by initiatives. Most did not see that there would be results down the road. We are on that road now and need to make sure our city does not suffer a serious decline in quality of life. I think this is a good enough idea to recommend to the city.
For right now it might be more achievable to find out what it would cost to restore the Big Hours with wading pool fairy funding.
There is detailed information now in a new post called “Wading Pool Info” which should help with this effort. http://www.wallyhood.org/2010/06/wading-pool-info/