A public swimming pool and aquatic center was just one of the items presented to the PCNC by the Parks and Rec Department.

As summer weather gets warmer, people long to go swimming. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of options in the Prescott area. You can swim at the YMCA in Prescott, or at Mountain Valley Splash in Prescott Valley. There are a few private pools around, but not nearly as many as you would expect in sunny Arizona. Some families will pack up their kids in the car and drive to Phoenix to a water park such as Waterworld Safari.

But, what if there was an aquatics center right here in Prescott so you didn't have to drive for an hour and a half to get there?

That was just part of the proposal made last week to the Prescott Capital Needs Committee (PCNC) by Debbie Horton, as part of the Prescott Parks & Recreation presentation. (Download the complete PowerPoint presentation for Parks, Recreation and Library that she offered to the PCNC committee.)

What Do Prescott Residents Want?

In January, 2007, a random sample survey was sent out to 4000 Prescott residents. Out of that, about 400 replied, with forty-seven percent of those having lived in Prescott for less than 10 years. According to the City of Prescott Master Plan Needs Assessment, "The majority of the survey respondents (57.4 percent) were 55 years of age or older."

In addition to the survey, three public meetings and three focus group meetings were held to understand the general public's and various user groups values, issues and needs. The resulting final Parks and Recreation Master Plan is viewable online.

Horton started out by reminding the committee that Parks and Rec contributes to the quality of life found in Prescott. According to the Needs Assessment, 94% of the respondents completely or mostly agree with that statement. In addition, a majority of the respondents agree that Parks & Rec are important to the City's economic development efforts (81%) and and even fosters tourism in Prescott (62%).

Horton chose to discuss the respondents' top eight choices for City Resource Allocation:

1. Maintain & repair existing facilities & fields
2. Acquire land to preserve Open Space
3. Develop new walking/hiking trails
4. Acquire land to develop new trails
5. Develop more neighborhood & mini parks
6. Build a public swimming pool
7. Senior programs
8. Acquire land for new recreation facilities

Horton explained that through the 1¢ sales tax, many of the items, such as acquiring land for Open Space (#2), acquiring land and developing new trails (#3, 4) are already being addressed. And the Rowle P. Simmons Community Center is helping Senior programs (#7) a great deal. She then addressed the remaining items.

Maintain & repair existing facilities & fields

Horton divided this section into two components: Park Upgrades and Ball Field Lighting. Many of the parks are not ADA (American Disability Act) compliant, and it will cost a fair amount to bring them up to standard. In addition, there are also general upgrades and repairs that need to be taken care of. And, finally, many of the lights in the parks and ball fields are inadequate and even unsafe. She pointed out one set of lights that used old telephone poles that are disintegrating. Total cost for this item? $2,337,700. And after much discussion, it was the opinion of most of the committee that this amount may not be adequate.

Develop more Neighborhood and Mini-Parks and Land Acquisition

Horton explained that there are certain areas of town currently underserved by parks. The City already owns property for an 8-acre neighborhood park adjacent to the Rowle P. Simmons Adult Center, and the plans are 80% complete. The cost to build that park, however, will run in the range of $2,500,000.

Furthermore, as Horton presented, there is a need for a Community /Regional park. One thing that will be helpful is that the City may potentially receive 80-100 acre donation of land, but it will have a stipulation that it be used for a park. But, to build that park will be expensive with an estimated price tag of $16,900,000.

Build a Public Swimming Pool

When Horton discussed the next priority - building a public swimming pool - she chose to combine this item with building an aquatic center, even though the aquatic center was prioritized way down the list at #15 by the Needs Assessment respondents.

Horton spoke about the reasons why she chose to combine the two items, "We really felt like - I wasn't here when the Master Plan was done - but staff felt like there was confusion on the terminology and people understanding that it meant both, that there wasn't clear separation, but could be combined as one. And that people weren't exactly sure what an aquatic center meant, it was just sort of not being real clear on what they were requesting and they just sort of didn't want to go down that road because they didn't understand all the components that that makes up."

"And that was one reason, that we felt like people just weren't real clear on that on the explanation on that," Horton said. She had also discovered new information in her preparation for the presentation to the PCNC, "And the fact that in talking to all the cities we have over the past couple of weeks, and hearing from them that swimming pool numbers are declining and in fact, some, after they opened up their aquatic centers have actually closed down their pools, we just felt like that was being very short-sited to think that one swimming pool was going to serve the needs when cities across the entire country are going to pools and aquatic centers both. That was the thinking behind it."

However, not only did the respondents separate the two items as far as priorties, they also distinguished between the two in support:

Build a public swimming pool: Very Supportive, approximately 42%; Somewhat Supportive, approximately 22%; Not Sure approximately 15%; Not Supportive approximately 18%.

Build a public water park/splash park: Very Supportive, approximately 28%; Somewhat Supportive, approximately 23%; Not Sure approximately 20%; Not Supportive approximately 28%.

Price Tag? Well, that all depends. A swimming pool by itself is likely to cost around $10,000,000. The aquatic center would probably cost at least an additional $16,000,000, perhaps more, depending on the features chosen.

Recreational Facility

This, too, was not in the top eight of priorities, although "Acquiring land for new recreational facilities" was #8. A new community recreational center came in at #17. The recreational facility that Horton and her staff proposed is 75,000 square feet, complete with indoor basketball courts, a running track, cardio/weight room, dance studio and more. Lots more, actually, there are even plans for a computer lab to be included. But, it all comes at a price, of course. $19,112,500 to be exact.

How to Fund

While the Needs Assessment did not clarify how Park & Rec upgrades and additions should be funded, the respondents did seem to have strong opinions about how it should not be funded:

• 66.9 percent of the respondents said they would support a special fund raising campaign followed by user fees (47.7%).
• Opposition to a few of the funding options was considerably high, with 75 percent of respondents not supporting a property tax increase and 60.7 percent would not support a sales tax increase.
• 36.4 percent of respondents said they would not support the idea of user fees, and 31.3 percent opposed a bond issue.

Considering that most bonds are paid off through taxes of some sort, there appears to be a contradiction in the minds of the respondents.

"I can also tell you, that yeah, everybody would like special fundraisers to take care of it, but those kind of private dollars are not going to come in," Horton said. "We ran across one community, in fact it was Ames, Iowa, and they had one individual, a couple actually, step up and donate $2 million. One million to go towards the aquatic center, another million to into a foundation to support the operational costs. When the bids came in, they were still $1 million higher than what the city could pay, so another individual stepped up and donated a million. But that's rare, that is very rare. And to sit around and say, "Let's just do fundraisers" well, there's just only so many cakes you can sell to get $16 million. I mean that's just too big a number to address through fundraisers, you know what I mean?"

Horton continued, "You know, we had the focus groups and the community meetings, but to get into this - this was more about what you want instead of how are we going to make it happen? It was trying to devise a plan that would guide the city for the next fifteen years, on where we needed our improvements in the parks and where we were lacking and what the community felt about that and things that were important to them. But as far as getting into the day to day grind of paying for it, that was just a single question that I don't think people were very clear on."

Horton added, "So, if they want it - and of course, this is the beauty of it going to the voters - knowing it would have to go through, say, a bond election, and they don't want to pay for it, they can vote it down at that point."

Quality of Life

So, why is an investment in the Parks and Rec Department important to the citizens of Prescott? Horton answered like this, "I think that - and that's what I loved about the Needs Assessment - that the community agreed that Parks and Rec contribute to the quality of life here in our town. So, I was pleased that - I mean that's just the sort of general common thought, but it was good to see the community actually votes as such, that they mostly and completely agreed with that statement."

"It's those intangibles that make a community desirable," Horton said, "Like I said to the group, yes people want safe cities, and they want low response time from their fire department, and streets without potholes. But its the kinds of things that Parks and Rec can provide that absolutely contribute to what people consider to be quality of life. When you talk to people who've moved here, it's the things like the trail systems that we have, and of course things that you can't control like the weather, it's a very desirable weather that we have here and the mountains and the location and the scenic beauty. Those are just those intangibles that all add up to mean it's a higher quality of life that's here, and certainly Parks and Rec plays a big part in that in all the services we supply."

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed