Washington offers funds to cover pool shortfall

WASHINGTON - After the city and YMCA of Washington County chose to open the Washington aquatic center this year, the YMCA has requested the city to cover the drop in revenue, an expense the Ciy Council felt was worth some fun in the sun.

The Washington YMCA manages the Steele Family Aquatics Center for the city. This year, the pool reported a loss of $23,263.60.

Though lesson revenue was stable compared to previous years, season pass revenue was around a third of the usual, and there were no concessions.

The bulk of the revenue in previous years has been the sale of season passes, said YMCA of Washington County CEO Amy Schulte. This year they did not offer season passes and limited the number of attendees to 100 per day.

'(The pool) rarely bumped up against this number, where in comparison several hundred patrons could be expected on a nice ‘normal' day before this year,” said City Administrator Brent Hinson.

Three times during the season the pool saw 100 swimmers. During the season the pool was split into two sessions, one from 1-3:30 p.m. and the second from 4-7 p.m. The first session had the highest attendance with many days reaching 40 attendees.

In 2019, the attendance was 12,873 users. This year it was 4,476 users.

Usage dropped by 65 percent and revenue was down by 69 percent.

Schulte said the season was successful because they opened the pool and had no staff members testing positive for COVID-19.

The Washington City Council approved use of money the city will receive as part of the CARES Act COVID-19 relief fund to reimburse the Washington YMCA.

'This type of revenue loss is exactly what those funds are meant to address,” Hinson said.

Several council members said opening was worth it.

'You knocked it out of the park,” said council member Steven Gault. 'You did a good job.”

Council members Millie Youngquist and Danielle Pettit-Majewski echoed the statement saying the Y did an outstanding job.