 |
|
|
|
|
Pool plan garners more support
Parks and Recreation chair in favor of plan
By Sam Scott
The Sunnyvale public had its chance to respond to the city's $203-million proposed budget before City Council last Tuesday--two weeks before the council votes on the proposal.
The event drew an unusually large crowd for a council meeting. Most seats were filled as were many spaces in the lobby and along the back wall. The topic with the biggest draw, as it has been at so many meetings lately, was the proposed pool at Fremont High School.
The city is considering sharing with Fremont Union High School District the cost on a 50-meter, joint-usage swimming pool at Fremont High School. According to estimates in the City Manager's recommended budget, the pool would cost the city $1.6 million in building fees and $135,000 in yearly operating expenses.
At the direction of council, City Manager Bob LaSala included the pool as a possible supplement to the budget, but recommended against its inclusion, citing other demands for the money. As a result of LaSala's recommendation, the City Council must conduct a separate vote if it wants to include the project in the approved budget.
To make sure that happens, pool supporters showed up in numbers, but, unlike recent meetings where they spoke for hours, only a handful of pool fans addressed the council. The majority of the pro-pool crowd simply waved blue pennants at statements they supported.
Holly Lofgren, head of Friends of the Fremont Pool, said supporters had decided beforehand to focus their presentation on a smaller number of speakers.
Ron Swegles, chair of the Parks and Recreation commission, was among the speakers. He reversed his earlier position and urged support for the pool. Swegles had been the only member of the Parks and Recreation commission to recommend against the pool. He changed his mind, he said, after the commission explored raising nonresidential golf fees at civic courses to increase revenue.
"We found the money," he said.
Robert Walker, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said raising golf fees remains in the proposal phase and is far from being adopted.
Other speakers voiced support on the budget's inclusion of a marketing plan to help the city's patent library become more self-sufficient and for plans to support low-income housing.
Mary Bradley, the city's director of finance, said the budget presents a healthy picture. The city's long-term analysis, she said, identifies revenues growing faster than expenditures. The city's report on the budget shows expenditures exceeding revenue by 2010.
Bradley said changes would have to be made in the coming years to deal with that.
|
|
|
|
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
