“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.
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