Manchester City Politics and Swimming Pools - Granite Grok

Manchester City Politics and Swimming Pools

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“You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry.  Most people do…”  Author Unknown

City pools…the latest whipping boy for the Alderman. Corriveau and Lopez want to charge out-of-towners, not make them go away.  Osborne dismissed it as minutia. Greazo wants to double-dip. Alderman Garth Corriveau said pools are a “luxury.” I would agree, Garth….let’s make this all about the “Haves and  Have nots!” Swimming Pool politics has it all! Apathy, Class warfare, taxing and spending, empire building, and demagoguing. Same old corrupt thinking.

Alderman Phil Greazo proposes to charge all users of city pools. Just one minor problem, Greazo…”WE ALREADY PAY FOR THE STINKING POOLS THROUGH THE TAX BASE!”

The UL reports in the June 1st story, “About 96,800 people who live in Manchester used the city pools in 2010…” That is 88% of this city’s just under 110,000 population. And, according to the data provided by Parks and Recreation only, 1,500 non-residents use the pools. But here is the real problem: these numbers are absolute bunk!

Anecdotally, here is where I think the numbers more accurately live: I think city pool use is more accurately +/- 12-16% of the total city population. With a staff of lifeguards on hand, the conditions prevail where public pools become babysitters by proxy. Here is my math…

(96,800 +/-16% = 15,488)  (15,488 / 2 = 7,744)  (7,744 +/-6 uses = 46,464) (7,744 +/-3 uses  = 23,232) (46,464 + 23,232 = 69,696)

I think non-resident use is DOUBLE despite Manchester Parks and Recreation assertions. Non-resident use most likely accounts for upwards of 25% of use. Heck, Why not? ITS FREE!!!( not Manchester residents)  Based on my own experiences at Livingston Pool, waiting there sometimes 40 minutes or more, the non-resident use is out of hand and isn’t tracked as well as it should be.  Here is what I think…More math…

(3,900 +/-$6 uses = 23,400)

I don’t think three non-residents or 3,000 non residents using the pools matters…until it is you, a city taxpayer, quietly watching and waiting at the fence…outside of the pool… roasting in the hot sun, while non-resident interlopers frolic about in the pool because it is, “free for them.” Under that circumstance, one non-resident swimmer is one-too-many.

Manchester’s Livingston pool is highly attractive. The net result, however has been a constant overflow of guests using that pool, while other pools in the city rarely see capacity use.  The pool clearly exceeds its bathing load because of high demand and the young staff is not equipped to properly manage the demand.

Back in 2005, I complained to Alderman Osborne about the non-resident use. A week-after story in the UL actually quoted an Allenstown resident defending her “right” to use the pools. Go figure…

You know, Greazo…these four pools in our city….Livingston, Hunt Memorial and the two over in your neck of the woods, Dupont and Raco-Theodore were around years before either you or I were born. It is also clear is that nothing should be off the table for budget austerity measures. But to suggest residents pay for something twice is bad form.

In perspective, do we  really need pools? The easy quick answer is no…Swimming pools are hardly something to be included as an essential service such as trash collection, sanitation or sewer. But on the other hand, when we look at our city budget all day, what is “quality of life” when budgets of past decided we will pay for pools, and now austere measures dictate that we won’t?

Perception is reality. The folks I have talked to about the city pools believe (rightly or wrongly) that non-resident use is excessive. 1,500 or 3,000 matters little, but exponentially discourages residents from using the pools because a city with a tin ear doesn’t hear our complaints. Non-residential use has an exponential net effect in discouraging the rightful users when Ed Osborne and company is so dismissive of the problem.  Time to put a stop to non-resident use. If the pools are cramping the budget that much, perhaps you might consider other cost-cutting measures instead of making us pay twice.

If you walk away with nothing else, be assured the demagoguery still exists.  Greazo will tax you twice though a local user fee….the same type of fee he campaigned as a State Rep candidate to reduce or eliminate at the state level; Osborne will dismiss you…tell you non-resident use is no big deal…Lopez will opt to continue to allow the interlopers and impose a fee versus simply not allowing them, as will Corriveau while demagoguing the issue of library closings and will proxy the class warfare argument; Capano will be the dutiful hack, giving the fallacious use numbers for empire-building and attendant layers of bureaucracy. And finally, the voters this fall will vote in favor of this Tammany Hall with Dan, “Boss Tweed” O’Neil playing the faux devil’s advocate.

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