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Politics & Government

No Additional Pools Will Close in 2012, Mayor Proposes

An outdoor pool committee will have one year to find an alternative funding source for neighborhood pools.

As Dearborn’s 2012-13 budget proposals are beginning to be formed, Mayor Jack O’Reilly has given news that has pools proponents breathing a sigh of relief: he is recommending that no additional outdoor pools close in 2012.

However, that promise comes with a caveat, explained Save Our Pools leader Ryan Woods.

“It a sustainable plan isn’t developed, and would be the only pools open in 2013,” he said.

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The exact method to achieving a plan that would provide alternative funding for the pools hasn’t been decided, but a special outdoor pool committee–comprised of SOP members, city officials and recreation commissioners–is working with the city to try to come up with a solution.

Neighborhoods May Pay for Their Pools

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Each of Dearborn’s neighborhood pools costs around $20,000-30,000 per year to maintain, not including capital improvements or administrative costs.

Budget talks in December and January have centered around three options for covering the cost of pools: fundraising, grants or special assessment districts. According to Woods, the latter of those three options is the one the city and pools committee are most actively pursuing.

A special assessment district, or SAD, would determine which households are users of and therefore should be responsible for the costs of maintaining neighborhood pools.

According to Mayor O’Reilly, City Council would set the district boundaries; however, it would be up to the residents in those districts to vote on whether they want to assume responsibility for the costs of those six neighborhood pools–including Hemlock and Whitmore Bolles, which did not open for the 2011 season.

Votes would be collected through a mail-in system and determine if an SAD should be created in that neighborhood.

“You need a certain number of responses and 51 percent (of those responses) need to support it,” O’Reilly explained.

For example, the city could decide that out of 1,000 homes in a SAD, 700 responses are needed to make the vote valid. It's up to supporters or opponents of the measure to make sure residents send in their votes.

If an SAD is created, homeowners would essentially be billed for the previous year’s costs–including payroll, utilities, maintenance and capital improvements–starting in 2013.

In return, explained O’Reilly, residents within the SAD would likely get unlimited use of the pools, and could also determine costs of pool tags to outsiders.

The costs to residents could also be offset by fundraising or grant dollars–such as money saved by having volunteers do a pre-season cleanup, or holding fundraising events throughout the pool season. However, Woods said that SADs would likely still be the best long-term option.

“Everybody’s looking at the SADs right now because it seems to be a consistent financial course,” he said. “A lot of people are concerned about fundraising or grants.”

And though Hemlock and Whitmore Bolles pools will remain closed for 2012, the SAD plan would include those pools as well.

Working Toward a Common Goal

O’Reilly said he supports the SAD plan because it allows each neighborhood to decide if pools are important enough to pay for.

“This is grassroots,” he said. “It’s neighbors trying to convince neighbors that they should do this.”

A similar effort was made several years ago by residents looking to add decorative streetlights to their neighborhoods. In some places–like the Ford Historic Homes neighborhood–the measure passed, and residents were billed for the cost. In others, such as Dearborn Hills, the effort failed.

In the case of pools, however, the cost would be ongoing, and would likely include a capital replacement account for when repairs arise.

Though many details still have to be ironed out, Woods said SOP is just happy that the city is willing to work with them, rather than just continuing to close pools.

“There are still a lot of hurdles to cross,” he said, “but we’re very happy that everybody’s working on the same page.”

A concrete plan on the neighborhood pools will likely be presented to the city in early March. The city will then have until the 2013 swim season to implement that plan, or else the remaining small pools will close.

As for Dunworth and Ford Woods, O’Reilly said that the city plans to cover the costs, and to expand Ford Woods by possibly adding a baby pool and other features.

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