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Show Year-around pool up in the air F By JANIS CARTER Clipper Correspondent LAYTON To keep its swimming pool open year-round or to leave the bubble off and closed during the winter, is a decision facing fac-ing Layton officials as they enter into budget sessions for fiscal 1991-92. 1991-92. All indoor city swimming pool operations in the state, Bountiful, Roy, Clearfield and Orem, are not able to operate at a profit or break I even and all need to be subsidized, the City Council was told. It is up to the council to decide if they want to subsidize the pool to keep it open year-round. The Layton pool is operating at an average of a $ 1 00,000 deficit per year. There are only one and one-half months in the summer when the swimming pool has enough revenue volume to make a profit, Steve Ashby, Layton City finance director, said. Current year revenues through January are below the previous winter month's . revenues by $26,125. Expenses for the period are $25,458 higher than the averages and $15,377 lower than the previous year. The trend appears to be a declining attendance in the winter period with little change in expenses, Ashby said. With the 45 cent increase in minimum wage beginning April 1, the city will have to raise lifeguard wages or lose them to other cities that pay more. The swimming pool complex offers more to the public than just open-wave swimming. The programs pro-grams offered in 1990 and approximate approx-imate daily attendance were: Open-wave70-80 (winter months), 340 (summer months); lap swimming, water areobics and exercise30-40; swimming lessons60-70; high school swim team60-70; city youth team (Surfers)-25-30; water polo-25-30. From fall to early winter there are approximately 1 30 people using the pool per day. From January to May there are about 200 a day, and from June through August about 340. Because the pool offers a valuable service to many people, Layton City Council members have to decide whether the services outweigh the deficit. Dean Allen, Layton City director of parks and recreation, has been with the city only six weeks. He would like one year "while I get my feet in the water," he said, to see what he can do to make it more profitable to keep the pool open year-round. The Parks and Recreation Commission Com-mission recommended leaving the bubble on during the cold months until it was no longer usable. Because of the great expense of the bubble itself, they felt it would be throwing money away to no longer use the bubble while it was still in good condition. |