Testimony that will be presented at the City Council’s second levy hearing tonight:

My name is Elizabeth and I am here with Project Seattle Pools.  First, I’d like to lend my voice of support to the group from SE Seattle that is here today to advocate for a pool in their community. 

I came down here today to thank you for setting aside city funds in this year’s budget for UV treatment of pools and pool covers, even though UV isn’t going into the levy.  This is terrific news for both the health of citizens and energy efficiency.  Thanks go to both you and your staff.

Since I’m already here, I have three suggestions:

First, we’d like to encourage you fund UV treatment for more than one pool this year.  Parks successfully built treatment systems for four pools before it ran out of UV funding, so good models for success exist already.  We’ve heard you’re working on this.  Thanks.

Second, we’d like to encourage you to add a seventh day to the schedule of at least one pool with UV treatment.  Lack of UV treatment has blocked 7 day openings.  Opening 7 days would be a great way to add 15% more hours to our pool system without building anything new just yet.  Remember, fixed costs (such as boiler maintenance) are already covered.  Again, we’ve heard you’re working on this.  Thanks.

Third, please help us find a way to fund a city-wide plan for pools, just like the skate-park plan.  This plan would lay the groundwork for the future community center/pool levy recommended by your levy advisory committee.  It would let all of us start applying for matching grants and raising community funds.  A pool plan would lay the groundwork for adding cost-effective facilities like Mounger outdoor pool, which has an 87% cost recovery rate, and Montlake Terrace indoor pool, which has a 78% cost recovery rate.

I’d like to leave you with a few numbers.  View Ridge pool has 897 families on its waitlist.  About 10 made it off the wait list this year, so the wait is now roughly 90 years, greater than typical lifetimes.  Dues in the first year are about 5,000.  Multiply 897 by 5,000 and you get just under $5 million, roughly the price of building an outdoor pool like Mounger. 

Judging by these numbers, I’d be willing to bet we’ll find quite a few donors willing to help get pools built once we have a plan in place.  And the examples of Mounger and Montlake Terrace demonstrate that pools can do an excellent job of covering operating costs through moderate admission fees.

[Updated 7/17/08: Wait list numbers upped.]