LAKEPORT – A discussion at Tuesday night's Lakeport City Council meeting about funding for the city's Westshore Pool upset Channel Cats swim team members and leaders when the city manager made an impromptu suggestion to close down the pool altogether in light of budget constraints.
City Manager Jerry Gillham made the remark during an agenda item concerning a $24,000 match of a state Parks and Recreation grant for which the Channel Cats were being held responsible.
He said Wednesday that he made the statement to communicate the gravity of the city's fiscal situation.
Many swim team members – including children still in their swim suits – and their parents sat through most of the lengthy meeting, which began with a discussion on halting safe and sane fireworks sales and use in the city this year due to fire concerns. The Channel Cats are one of four groups that voluntarily agreed not to sell fireworks, which will mean they'll lose more than $10,000 in revenue.
In the face of losing their fireworks money, the Channel Cats learned this week that they were expected to pay $24,000 toward the pool's repairs as part of a state grant match requirement, Channel Cats President Jennifer Hanson told Lake County News on Wednesday.
The group hired a grant writer to write a grant on behalf of the city in 2004 in order to rehabilitate Westshore Pool. The $168,000 grant included a requirement for a $24,000 match from a private entity, which the club is in no position to make at this time, Hanson said.
City Engineer Scott Harter said he met with a state representative last month to close out the grant paperwork.
The Channel Cats had made $30,000 in other, in-kind improvements, including purchasing and installing a furnace, and buying pool covers and a pool cleaning system.
Harter asked the state representative if that work and the purchases could cover the $24,000 match; the response was no, since the original scope of work hadn't included those items.
However, the state has indicated they will grant a request to waive the match requirement, said Harter, who was seeking the council's direction on what they wanted him to do.
If the waiver is granted, it would mean the city would not receive those funds, said Harter. All of the repairs to the pool – which cost just over $380,000 to complete – have been covered between the state grant and more than $212,000 in city funds.
Hanson and Channel Cats Board member Kay Irvine spoke to the council on behalf of the club, asking for the waiver.
With the fireworks sales gone, Hanson said the club still needs to pay the city $8,000 rent for the pool this summer season.
"We do not have $24,000," Hanson said.
Hanson said it was their understanding that the $30,000 in in-kind work and donations did count for their match, only finding out on Monday that it didn't.
The current team is the largest in the club's history, with more than 140 swimmers, said Irvine.
Irvine added, "There's not a lot of positive things to do for the children in Lake County."
The council voted 4-1 – with Councilman Jim Irwin voting no – to seek the waiver from the state and, in the case it's not granted, to bill the club.
Public Works Director Doug Grider told the council he's working with Supervisor Anthony Farrington on a request to the county for funding help for the pool this fiscal year.
After the council's vote, Gillham turned to the audience of club members and asked if the Channel Cats would take over operating the pool.
"Will you help us with the money?" asked one woman.
"No," Gillham replied.
He added, "My proposal is going to be to close it down."
It was a statement that elicited upset reactions from parents. "You want our kids on the streets?" a woman asked.
Hanson said they didn't have $24,000, much less the funds at this point to run the pool.
Gillham replied that he was looking for a "win-win" situation.
He told the council later in the meeting that he had wanted to "test the waters" to see if the club was willing to take the pool. If the city can't get help from other sources to run the pool, Gillham repeated that he would suggest dropping the pool's operations.
Group angry over statements about pool closure
Gillham told Lake County News on Wednesday that the Tuesday night meeting wasn't the first time he had asked the group about taking over the pool. “I'd actually talked to them before, last year at this time, to convince them to take over the pool, because of where we are financially.”
He said his statements Tuesday were stimulated by the council's decision to seek an agreement with the Westside Park Committee in which that group would take over phase two of the park's operations, making future improvements and being responsible for maintenance. The group has raised money for improvements which the city doesn't have.
Gillham said his comments stemmed from the city's current budget difficulties. “I did it for a reason – to let everyone in this community understand that the shortfalls we have are going to result in some difficult situations.”
But Gillham's statements may have had an unintended consequence.
“The community should know that I have 200 families that are upset now,” Hanson said Wednesday.
She said she, too, was still upset by the discussion, which caught her off guard.
To close the newly repaired pool would mean the loss of an important asset for the community, she said. The pool saves lives by teaching children to swim, is used by the Kelseyville and Clear Lake High swim teams, and its swimming programs have helped gain some of its members swimming scholarships, said Hanson.
But the pool isn't just for children. “We help everybody, from 3 to 80.”
She added, “It was shocking to even hear him say they would consider closing that pool.”
News of Gillham's comments spread quickly among the Channel Cats families, she said. At the Wednesday night swim, parents and children alike came to ask her if the pool was being closed.
As city manager, Gillham said it's his job to preserve services at the highest level possible, with public safety, water, sewer and streets coming before the pool.
Last year the pool cost the city $90,000 to operate, this year costing $76,000. “That's a police officer,” he said.
He expects to have a budget to the council this month, before he leaves for a deployment in Iraq with the Oregon National Guard.
Gillham said he's not made a decision about what he'll propose the city do about the pool.
“I'm telling you all possible scenarios are out there,” he said, with staff putting together “cutback packages” to look at how they might save up to $500,000, the latest number for the city's budget shortfall.
Hanson said she and the club members are talking about different ways to approach the pool situation.
“We want to save this pool,” she said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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