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WECRD releases op plans for center, raises questions as to when report was received
The Western Elmore County Recreation District plans to lose nearly $200,000 a year and to sell 500 family passes annually at $400 each once it opens its facility, according to an operations budget prepared by GreenPlay.
The district hired the consulting firm to create an operations budget for the recreation center it plans to eventually build. During the recent election campaign WECRD officials indicated that construction would begin in late 2009.
According to the budget, the proposed community center will be a 20,000-square-foot building with indoor aquatics that would include a warm water therapy pool with ramp and a cool water "zero depth" entry with two swim lanes; a lobby; locker/restrooms; two small and one large multipurpose rooms; a fitness/cardio room; and a walking circuit.
The center would be open from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday though Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays, and noon to 8 p.m. on Sundays, according to the report, which is described as being still in its draft stage.
Pass holders can participate in self-directed activities but would pay additional fees for special classes under the tentative operation plan.
Annual, monthly and 10-punch passes would be available, in addition to daily admission charges, the budget shows.
Residents who live in the district or are in the military would receive a 20 percent discount compared to non-residents.
An annual pass for an adult living in the district or in the military would be $200. A monthly pass would be $20, a 10-punch pass would be $40 while daily admission in lieu of a pass would be $5.
Family passes are $400 annually or $40 monthly for in-district or military families.
The budget shows the WECRD is planning to sell 500 of the $400 passes, in addition to the 2,015 other types of passes and 3,910 day passes it expects to sell each year. As of 2006 there were 7,345 livable units in the district.
In comparison, the City of Mountain Home sold nine $22.50 season passes for children five and younger to the city pool, 62 $45 season passes for people older than six, donated 29 passes to El-Ada and issued 38 to city employees as part of their benefit package last summer.
The city has sold approximately 200 passes to the golf course at nearly $500 apiece.
Board director Mollie Marsh declined to answer questions regarding how the board plans to reach those goals.
In the budget's five-year budget projection, the WECRD expects to spend $795,393 in operating expenses while collecting $597,932 in revenue for an anticipated loss of $197,461 in its first year of operation.
However tax revenues are not reflected in the operating budget. The district collected $422,999.98 in 2007.
It is unclear when the WECRD obtained the document from GreenPlay, but some questions have been raised about whether or not the budget information was, or should have been, made available for the public to review prior to the election.
The WECRD had printed, in a paid ad in the Oct. 29 issue of the Mountain Home News, a summary of the cover letter sent by GreenPlay concerning the operations plan, but it did not indicate any of the actual projected revenue and expenses.
The Mountain Home News received a copy from a third-party source Nov. 3, the day before the district's first election for director Mollie Marsh's seat on the three-member board.
When the paper asked WECRD employee Rebecca Ainslie-Perez for a copy of the document on the same day, she directed all questions to the board of directors and refused to confirm or deny the document existed.
Board president Doug Belt did not return phone calls left at his residence and on his WECRD-provided cell phone.
Board member Marsh did provide the Mountain Home News with a copy of the operation budget on Nov. 12 but declined to answer any questions relating to the document.
The document she provided the Mountain Home News was missing a detailed three-page spreadsheet breaking down the annual personnel cost for the facility as well as a two-page letter from Pat O'Toole of GreenPlay written to Marsh and dated Oct. 10 that appeared in the first copy the Mountain Home News received.
Mountain Home resident Judy Mayne said she ran into problems of her own trying to obtain the document prior to the election.
She said she went to the WECRD office on Oct. 30 after reading a letter to the editor written by Sandy Pitts in the Oct. 29 edition of the Mountain Home News that made reference to the document.
There she said WECRD volunteer Betty Ashcraft told her the document was on her kitchen table because she had been comparing the document to the building's architect's plans.
Mayne then left the WECRD office because she had an appointment to keep at another place in Mountain Home. She said Ashcraft told her she would go to her house, get the document and bring it to her at the place of her appointment.
Mayne said when Ashcraft met up with her, she only had a one-page cover letter to the document, dated Oct. 10, and said the document had been secured in a filing cabinet in the WECRD office and that the secretary with the key would not be in the office until Tuesday morning, the day of the election.
Mayne said when she got a copy of the budget that morning she was upset because she felt like the WECRD had purposely withheld information and only shared it with people who would help get Marsh re-elected.
Pitts, whose Oct. 29 letter to the editor had to submitted by Oct. 27 to the Mountain Home News by paper policy, said she first read the document as it was being passed around at a meeting to re-elect Marsh sometime during the week of Oct. 20-24.
Ashcraft denied the document was ever on her kitchen table but did say she originally thought the document was left in her bag after she took it to the architect's office during the week of Oct. 27-31 before she said she realized it was in the WECRD's filing cabinet.