‘Save the Pool’: community members assemble regarding Aquatic Center negotiations

By Kim McDarison

Some 25 community members arrived at the Cravath Lakefront Community Building Wednesday to throw their support behind an effort to “Save the Pool,” which is the name associated with a group of Whitewater residents who have organized to embrace that initiative. 

According to group organizers, including Cheri Zimdars, Guy Ledwell, Jeff Knight and Geoff Hale, the group is looking to inform community members about recent undertakings by the city of Whitewater and Whitewater Unified School District officials to negotiate an agreement governing the operation and leasing arrangement of the Whitewater Aquatic and Fitness Center. The two organizations have jointly supported the center through contractual agreements since its inception in 2001. 

Negotiations to arrive at an agreement between the two bodies began last month with the assemblage of the Whitewater Aquatic and Fitness Center Subcommittee. The group includes three elected officials from each body and is supported by members from each body’s staff. 

A need to negotiate an agreement was announced by city officials last month after it was made know publicly by city officials that a contract approved in 2021 by the Whitewater Common Council had remained unsigned by school district officials. The aquatic center has since operated without an approved agreement. 

Also in attendance Wednesday were Whitewater City Manager John Weidl, Whitewater Unified School District Superintendent Caroline Pate-Hefty, Whitewater Unified School District Board of Eduction members and members of the Aquatic and Fitness Center Subcommittee Jen Kienbaum and Larry Kachel, and newly elected school board members Christy Linse and Stephanie Hicks, along with newly elected council member Neil Hicks. 

Statements from organizers  

Knight opened the meeting by telling those in attendance that he and his wife were members of the aquatic center, and that he had been hearing bits of information, saying: “I became concerned about it.”  

He introduced two group organizers who were in attendance during the meeting, including Hale and Zimdars. Ledwell, he said, was unable to attend. 

Knight said a notice was sent out to community members about the meeting  based on “a need to bring a bigger group together to save the pool.” 

Offering some history, Knight said that early agreements between the city and school district to operate the pool called for each entity to contribute $75,000 annually. At that time, he said, a board was overseeing the facility. He cited a clause within an early agreement, which, he said, was an “inflationary component,” and, he claimed, “it never got exercised.”  

In those years, he said, he was a member of the aquatic center board, and he was among members who pushed to see the inflationary component exercised, which, he said, raised the contribution made by each entity to $78,000. 

“If the inflationary incremented was instituted through the entire term of the agreement, just on the inflationary increment, there would have been close to $400,000, and I think that’s something important for everybody to know,” Knight said. 

Knight said through conversations with council and school board members he had come to understand that no federal COVID relief funds had been used during the time of the pandemic to aid the aquatic center as it struggled during and after the pandemic shutdown.   

“I think the aquatic center was definitely hit by COVID pretty heavily and had to shut down. At least they did one thing and they kept the lap pool kind of going by reservation, so there was some access, but that was very limited and I don’t think that produced a lot of revenue,” he said.  

Knight said he believed there may have been missed opportunities by the two entities to engage in grant writing, citing “bipartisan infrastructure money,” which, he said, had been made available through grants, that might have been used to address HVAC equipment and boiler maintenance issues. 

He expressed his frustration that the agreement between the city and the school district had remained unsigned for two years. 

“I don’t think that’s a very good demonstration of leadership or management,” he said. 

As negotiations progressed, he said, he called for more transparency and inclusion of the public in decision-making. 

Knight next introduced Zimdars, who, he said, is the head coach of the J-Hawks swim club.

“I’m obviously involved because my life surrounds a swimming pool, and I mean my whole life has pretty much been around a swimming pool,” Zimdars said. 

As a swim coach and member of the aquatic center, she said, she saw on a daily basis the importance of the aquatic center to community members of all ages.  

“I’m watching kids learn to swim, I’m watching senior citizens in all different programming in the facility. This is something that truly is a community facility,” she said. 

Zimdars noted that she had become aware through conversations on Facebook that people within the community were not aware that the center was operated by the city. Some thought it was privately run, she said. 

She said she saw an advantage in making a broader spectrum of people aware of the facility’s year-round attributes, and advocated for the city and school district to “work together” to ensure that “the entire thing,” including “both bodies of water,” would remain available for all age groups. 

Addressing attendees, Hale said he has never used the aquatic center, but still saw it as “the most valuable gym that this community is holding onto right now.” 

Hale called the lapse in the facility’s operating agreement a “fiscal irresponsibility,” on the part of the city and school district, and a “betrayal of the community trust from the standpoint of not making it a 100% effort on everybody’s part,” including, he said, “from the standpoint of the $2 million in COVID relief money that we got in Whitewater for our school system that could have been put towards this and was thrown at a failing sports program.” 

Knight said that community members in attendance in March during the first meeting of the aquatic center subcommittee were, from his perspective, disappointed. 

He noted that an agenda for the meeting was set for two hours, but after nine members of the public spoke, the meeting was concluded early, and none of the subcommittee members offered comments. 

“So most of the people that came there to speak walked away even more frustrated because there’s no sense that there’s any light at the end of the tunnel if we don’t keep pushing,” he said. 

Comments from guests invited by organizers 

Knight next introduced a community members seated among attendees, Bob McCullough, whom, he said, could offer insight into aquatic center history because his wife, Sharon, was among members of the SWIM (Setting Whitewater in Motion) committee that formed to bring the facility to fruition. 

McCullough said his wife was unable to attend the meeting, but related to him that the SWIM group, sometime in the early 1990s, commissioned through a Colorado-based company a feasibility study, and while he was unable to obtain a copy, he was able to recall that the study indicated that the leisure pool area of the aquatic center was identified as the space that would generate 70-80% of the facility’s revenue. As a matter of revenues, he said, the leisure pool was “kind of the driver of the thing.” 

Hale said he thought the aquatic center was under marketed, adding that he believed marketing the facility to other communities within a 20-mile radius would increase its revenues. 

A resident said they moved into the community three years ago and had recently joined the center. 

She said she only learned about the center through word of mouth, otherwise, she would not have known the facility was available. 

Several in attendance agreed that an increase in marketing would help grow revenues for the facility. 

Also seated among attendees and asked by Knight to address the group, Ron Binning said he was among founding members of a group called “Friends of the Aquatic Center.” 

Binning described the group as some 30 to 40 members strong, but, he said, it had stopped meeting during the COVID pandemic. 

He said he was motivated to become involved with the aquatic center because, as a kid growing up on a farm, he had limited opportunities to learn how to swim. When he was 5, he said, he nearly drowned in Lake Michigan, noting that he was saved by a neighbor. 

He said the friends group collects funds which it donates to individuals identified through the school district who could use help affording swimming lessons. 

“Through the pandemic, we kept funneling money for lessons, and we have $11,000 probably in the bank just for lessons,” Binning said.  

He said the group also has used its funding to purchase AED machines for use at the center. 

Of the friends group, Binning said: “We would support anything that can get the two sides together to make this a facility that — all of us are proud of it — we just need the two sides to get together to figure out what’s the course of action moving forward.”  

In hindsight, he said, he thought an effort should have been made to create a “side fund” to “perpetuate the equipment that is going to fail.” 

Binning said he thought those who worked to bring the aquatic center to fruition were “ecstatic” about getting the job done, and an effort to create a fund to support maintenance of the facility “just slipped through the cracks.

“But maybe now is the time to do that.” 

He cited a lack of shared revenue from the state in recent years, making it harder for entities like the city and district to afford needs associated with amenities like the aquatic center. 

Offering a solution, he said: “We create the effort to raise a side fund that will perpetuate, without sucking more money from the city and school district. They still need to contribute, but maybe we can create a side fund that has that rainy day fund.”  

Knight called the idea, “a worthy effort.” 

Citing some drowning statistics, Knight called learning to swim “as much of a life skill as reading.” 

Comments from attendees 

The meeting was next opened for comments from members of the audience. 

One commenter noted that people often came from great distances to the aquatic center because they did not have similar facilities available in their communities. 

She was aware of several people who came from Janesville, she said.  

Another person commented that swimming lessons offered to high school students are taking place within the aquatic center. She said: “the school district is using the aquatic center.” 

Also discussed was a discontinuation within the high school of a class offered in lifesaving. The discontinuation of the class has had an impact on the center’s ability to hire lifeguards, Knight said. 

Knight noted that he believed the school district was getting “a very good deal” by sharing the aquatic center with the community. 

He said the expense associated with an aquatic facility would be higher if the district had to “stand alone by themselves.” 

Zimdars said the school district offers summer school swimming lessons at the aquatic center. 

She advocated for more opportunities for swimming lessons for children “because you want all kids to be safe in the water,” she said. 

An audience member said she had heard rumors that the school district’s superintendent was looking at aquatic center space for use as school administrative offices. 

Kienbaum responded, saying, “no, that’s a rumor.” 

Pate-Hefty also said the information was untrue. 

The commenter continued: “I’ve heard it a lot that the school district is not supporting this. Nor is the — I don’t want to call him the mayor, but whatever, he, too, is not necessarily on board for this, so, you know, we’ve arrived at this place, but was it because we were short on members? Was it because we ran out of money?”  

“COVID was the killer,” Hale said.  

The group discussed staffing at the center, with Knight and Zimdars noting that there were some issues with finding enough lifeguards to maintain a full schedule. 

Zimdars said that the center has been hiring people 55 and older who have undergone a two-year lifeguard certification process. 

City manager, school superintendent statements 

During the discussion, both Weidl, the Whitewater city manager, and Pate-Hefty, the school district superintendent, were offered an opportunity to address the group. 

“First of all, I really wouldn’t worry. We are going to get an agreement done,” Weidl said. 

He noted that members of both boards, the city council and the school board, “have said they want an agreement done. 

“Having said that, it takes a little time, just like any tenant-landlord relationship, you need to have a length, you need to have an amount we pay for that space.” 

He said determining responsibilities associated with equipment repair and maintenance also were part of the negotiation. 

“I don’t think any of the levels of service have changed, and, in fact, in many ways, they are improving,” he said, adding: “the city is still paying the bills, still paying all the staff, we are absorbing all the costs.” 

he said he was supportive of the fund proposed by Binning, which, he said, he realized would not help with larger costs, like roof repairs, but could certainly help with smaller costs.  

Citing as an example, he said, on the city’s “want list” the fund might be used to pay for an electronic sign. 

“Having that would be one of the ways we could address our marketability and our outreach,” Weidl said. 

Said Weidl: “Fundamentally, the bills are getting paid, the staff are there, and we are working on continuing to hire. We are going to get an agreement done. There’s just some big issues hanging out there. There were cost overruns during COVID, the city still had to pay bills. So they got paid, it’s sitting as a liability on our books, it’s a few hundred thousand dollars. We could just write it off, but we have the taxpayers to keep in mind. So I think, justifiably, we have to ask and figure out a responsible way to make sure we are handling that liability, and, at the same time, we have to make sure we don’t end up in the same spot in five years.”  

He said memberships are up, revenues are up and social media is up. 

“Things are headed in the right direction, but it’s not going to take six weeks. It’s going to take six months, as we try to work all this into our budget cycle,” he added. 

Addressing the group, Pate-Hefty said: “I want to take the opportunity, if you were following the news last night, referendums for schools across the state failed, Elkhorn, Fort (Atkinson), Milton lost a referendum.” 

She said she was “tremendously thankful” that the Whitewater community supported its schools. 

“I would just really encourage that some of those referendums failed because of divisiveness, and I think I want to commend John (Weidl),” she said, adding that both she and the city manager had “done a lot of work.” 

Both were working with their boards to create “affirmation statements,” which, she added, “really just means that we are both committed to this process. The whole thought of saving our pool, we want to save the pool. We just, again, it’s going to take time to get there.”  

Of Weidl, she said, “he has been the first city manager that’s been willing to work through this process, and I’m very impressed with the accountability that he’s had, and willingness to come work through each of these steps; This is not easy.” 

She asked Save the Pool meeting attendees to help the process by supporting the efforts underway.  

Pate-Hefty continued: “Hopefully, you saw in your tax bills that your taxes went down this year. We promised that to our community.” 

To maintain that promise, she said, the district needed to be careful in the commitments that it makes when it signs a five- or 10-year agreement. 

“And I don’t want to do that with the divisiveness of saying, ‘ok, well, then we don’t have other beautiful facilities as well.’ We want all of our facilities to be beautiful for all of our students and our community,” she said. 

Addressing comments about the district’s summer school program, she said 700 kids participated last year, and 300 kids participated in the swimming component. Summer school is offered to students districtwide free of charge, she said.  

Addressing the two administrators, Knight said he had been in contact with members of both boards, describing them as friends, but, he said, “I don’t feel they are doing their job. 

“We can say how everything is starting to come together, and we are thinking about this now, but that agreement lapsed two years ago.” 

He added: “If you want me to stop pushing, let’s start getting it done.”

Knight said he would keep pushing, and encouraged those in attendance to keep reaching out to the elected officials, to bring an agreement forward. 

An earlier story about the first aquatic center subcommittee meeting held in March is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/whitewater-aquatic-center-subcommittee-discusses-operations-finances/.

An earlier story outlining the Whitewater Common Council’s position regarding negotiations underway within the subcommittee is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/council-sets-whitewater-aquatic-center-contractual-negotiation-goals/.