Admission fees to the Iola Municipal Pool will stay the same in 2012.
City Council members rejected a proposal from the city’s recreation advisory committee to help balance the pool’s budget by raising pool rates by $1 for most users and closing the pool an hour earlier than in years past.
The committee recommended upping daily admission fees to $2 for children, $3 for adults and lowering the age for free admission to 3 years, instead of the current 5. The committee also suggested closing the pool at 7 p.m. daily instead of 8 o’clock.
Those measures would have brought in an additional $18,000 in revenue, based on 2011 attendance figures, and decreased expenses by more than $7,700 with the earlier closing, Recreation Director Luke Bycroft said.
Council member Beverly Franklin said she opposed raising rates because of the large number of impoverished residents living in and around Iola.
The city should accept the budget losses for the pool, Joel Wicoff, city councilman, said, to encourage more children to use the pool in the summer, “instead of staying home watching TV.”
Councilman Kendall Callahan said he appreciated the council’s efforts to keep user rates low, but wondered whether the city could afford such a shortfall, particularly since the higher rates had been endorsed by Iola’s rec advisory group.
Councilman Ken Rowe, meanwhile, wondered if a fund could be set up to assist destitute families with daily admission costs through the summer.
In the end, both voted with the rest of the council to keep the pool rates the same as in years past, and among the lowest in the state. The vote passed 7-0, with Councilman Steve French absent.
In a related matter, councilmen accepted a letter of resignation from Bycroft, effective April 19.
Bycroft, who is accepting a role with the ministerial staff of Fellowship Regional Church in Iola, credited the vision of Iola’s administration, council members and city staff over his 3 ½ -year term in helping expand the rec department.
Mayor Bill Shirley, meanwhile, lauded Bycroft’s leadership as rec director.
COUNCIL MEMBERS heard another barrage of criticism from residents critical of recent decisions.
Iolan Ray Houser lauded former Human Resources Manager Ken Hunt, who was fired by Shirley the day after the council’s March 26 meeting.
Houser said he’s known Hunt for several years, and always considered Hunt honest and forthright.
If the two were ever hunkered in a foxhole, “I would trust him with my life,” Houser told the council, “which is more than I could say of some of you.
