Praising members of a volunteer group that sets policy at Waveny Pool, the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved a new slate of fees for the 2015 season at the popular summertime destination.
The finances of the self-sustaining Waveny Pool have seen a “dramatic change” for the better, in part because of a Park & Recreation subcommittee that has “put some business acumen behind the way that business was being run,” First Selectman Rob Mallozzi said during the board’s Feb. 10 meeting.
“[Recreation Director] Steve [Benko] was incredibly adaptive to that and the pool is on really solid footing again,” Mallozzi said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department.
The approved fees are as follows, with a reduction in regular family passes and an increase in passes that allow for daily use and guests—changes designed to lure families to purchase season passes rather than mixing and matching daily and guest passes to save money (article continues below):
Waveny Pool Fee Schedule, 2015
| 2014 fee | 2015 fee | |
|---|---|---|
| Family Pass—Regular | $475 | $425 |
| Family Pass—Early bird | $425 | (no more) |
| Individual Pass | $225 | $250 |
| Daily Pass | $125 plus $5 per visit | $175 plus $10 per visit |
| Senior Citizen | $70 | $70 |
| Nanny Pass | $125 | $125 |
| Guest Fee: Children (17 & u) | $5 | $10 |
| Guest Fee: Adult | $10 | $15 |
| Non-resident Pass | $1,000 | $1,000 (limited to 100 total) |
Out-of-town families that purchase higher-priced season passes to Waveny Pool—mostly residents of Darien, reigning runners-up for the state football title—already are making inquiries of the Rec Department for the upcoming season.
Finance officials on Tuesday agreed to use some of the approximately $84,000 in a Waveny Pool reserve for capital upgrades at the facility. They include:
- Addition of an 11-by-18-foot concrete deck north of the pool building to store lane line reels (now stored in an outdoor shower area—effectively making them unusable—and adjacent deck);
- Replacement of two diving boards which are worn and slippery;
- Replacement of the 12-year-old floor tiles in both men’s and women’s locker rooms;
- Two additional 20-foot (diameter) umbrellas for the lawn on the south side of the pool.
Parks officials also have broached the possibility of purchasing ping-pong and foosball tables, grading and landscaping for aesthetics at the pool and keeping its snack bar open later for commuting parents.
Parks officials last month credited Finance Director Dawn Norton and Budget Director Jennifer Charneski with discovering more than $300,000 in the pool’s coffers—funds that had been overlooked based on a mistake that the town had made several years ago. Specifically, two-thirds of each summer’s revenue had been forwarded on to the following year for accounting purposes, as the Waveny Pool season straddles “years” in the municipal fiscal calendar, officials have said.
During a light moment in the selectmen’s meeting Tuesday, Selectman Beth Jones had flagged a typographical error which showed that the cost of a nanny’s season pass at Waveny Pool would stay flat while a senior pass would go up more than 20 percent.
Jones told the selectmen that she’d been asked by a senior about what seemed to be an unfair hike.
“I explained to them that I thought it was who you would prefer to see in a bathing suit,” she said.
Through laughter, Mallozzi and Selectman Nick Williams noted for the record that it was Jones, and not they, who had made the remark.
Beth Jones is terrific and on the ball.