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Council asks for broader Fremont pool usage plan
Some local community groups and clubs could be priced out of usage
By Jana Seshadri
After much discussion that excluded public input, Sunnyvale City Council members directed the department of parks and recreation staff to follow a broad program that would allow different community groups use of the Fremont pool, which is under construction.
Audience members could not publicly voice their disappointment and disapproval of the parks and recreation staff's initial report, since the meeting was a study session, with no public forum compnent. The Feb. 4 joint session between the city council, the department of parks and recreation and the parks and recreation commission concerned Fremont pool programs and fee setting guidelines.
The staff-recommend report stated the city's pool use would depend on a market-based fee and program structure and allow priority to three groups--adult lap swimmers first, city programs next and then cosponsors. According to Robert Walker, director of parks and recreation, an outside pool operator could be hired to manage the pool. However, the fee structure wouldn't depend on who the operator was but purely on the market, he said. Once the fee and program schedules are decided upon, they will be presented to the council for approval but can still be changed if they are found to be unsatisfactory or unreasonable, he said.
"The initial focus of the pool was to have programs for the adult swimmers first," Walker said.
The 50-meter pool, the first of its kind in the area, is being constructed jointly by the Fremont Union High School and the city of Sunnyvale, which automatically allots 50 percent of pool time to the students of the school. According to Walker, details of the pool use have not been worked out yet. Logically, however, considering ease and convenience, students would use the pool while they are in school. The rest of the pool time belongs to the city. How the time will be allotted is the subject of debate.
"I started working on this pool project eight years ago," said Holly Lofgren, Chairwoman of Friends of the Fremont Pool. "I organized all the fundraising and wrote the grant--we've worked very, very hard and raised $800,000 so far."
Lofgren said she spearheaded the effort to construct a pool in Sunnyvale because initially there was not an adequate adult swim program in the city. However, Friends of the Fremont Pool wasn't started only for the sake of the adult programs, she said.
"The money that Friends raised is still in a bank account," Sunnyvale Mayor Fred Fowler said. "The money was raised as an endowment--to be used for the upkeep of the pool, to cover operating costs."
Lofgren and many of the audience members expressed concern that the staff-recommended pool usage will exclude other community groups from using the pool.
"The staff report is in total conflict with the Friends' original intentions," parks and recreation Commissioner Raymond Pole said.
"We're disappointed with the staff report," Sunnyvale Swim Club President Lisa Fischer-Colbrie said. "We had hoped for more initial direction from the city council."
With more than 100 swimmers in their team, the club's concerns are many, she said. The market-based fees may be too high for them to afford; they might be priced out by swim lessons that their competitor, California Sports Club, might offer the city; and they might not be able to use the pool during the times they want.
"This pool would have been a great bonus for us," Fischer-Colbrie said. "We will keep working on this within our parameters."
Several council members and commissioners voiced their concern about the danger of excluding some community groups from using the pool if the city followed the staff-recommended approach. Vice Mayor Julia Miller expressed concern about the funds that the Friends' have raised. A large fund would normally give some voice to the organization that raised it.
"We hoped that the city would see this as a unique situation," Lofgren said. "Regrettably the city will not allow us into this process in an advisory capacity as we had hoped. The city council obviously has more influence in this issue than we do."
In order to raise almost $1 million, several donors have given money with the understanding that the pool would be an asset to the whole community of Sunnyvale, Lofgren said.
Fowler and council members Vorreiter, Manuel Valerio and John Howe agreed the city should include different groups of people and follow a broader, though market-based, approach to determine fees and programs. Howe said it's important that staff also develop a fee-waiver program for the city's use of the pool. This program would enable deserving swimmers under certain guidelines to use the pool, even if they are not able to afford the fees, he said.
"Eligible people should not be excluded from using the pool simply because they cannot afford it," Howe said.
Under the balanced approach, Mayor Fowler directed staff to consider a "broad" program, which would include adult and master swimmers, community recreational swimmers, programs for youth from grades K-12, which would include participants in swim teams and swimming lessons.
"We tried not to make a list that is restrictive," Fowler said.
He added that the new direction would also give staff the flexibility to allow changes in the future. Staff will present their new report to the council at a future meeting, which would include a public hearing, Fowler and Howe said.
"I have given the last three years of my life to this pool," Lofgren said. "And I'm going to continue working on it on behalf of the Sunnyvale community until opening day."
According to Lofgren, the pool is scheduled to open for the public in June but might begin operating exclusively for Fremont High School students next month.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
