CORONADO Coronado has agreed to increase fees at the city’s municipal pool, in part to recover some of its $1 million in costs but also out of concerns it was undercutting prices at another pool that was reluctantly taken over by Coronado’s school board last year.
In February, the city agreed to adopt a model that would establish similar rates for services to encourage residents and swim groups to use both the city’s pool and the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatic Complex at Coronado High School, which nearly closed last year. Fees at the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatic Complex were higher than at the city’s pool.
The Coronado Unified School District used $9 million from a special local property tax fund in 2006 to build the pool. It did so only on the condition that nonprofit groups would raise money needed to operate it. However, the groups’ efforts failed. Instead of closing it, the district agreed in September to spend $100,000 a year to maintain the aquatic site.
By June 1, 2011, Coronado residents will pay a $4 daily swim rate, double the $2 the municipal pool now charges. Daily rates for nonresidents also will double, to $10, by 2011. The increase will be incremental, with fees beginning to rise June 1 of this year. The City Council adopted its new pool rates at a March 16 meeting.
Read the entire Union Tribune article here.
