“As I said to the campus earlier this year, we cannot and should not solve our fiscal problems by making one-time cuts. We also cannot base our budget on hopes for huge increases in enrollment. The Board is rooting for SOU in this process because it realizes our value to Southern Oregon and to the state.
However, the Board is also encouraging us to face our problems and develop long-term, not short-term, solutions. In order to meet our $4 million challenge, I gave each vice president a target goal based on his or her percentage of the overall budget.”
—Mary Cullinan, President, SOU, January 8, 2007
* * * * *
Since that announcement by SOU’s president six months ago, the budget cutting process at Southern Oregon University has been headline news. There was talk of cutting 22 academic programs, eliminating the German major, and merging three colleges into one. Twenty-four faculty jobs would be lost, most through retirements, vacancies, or layoffs of adjunct instructors. The university also planned to do away with two dozen staff positions.
For participants of aquatic sports, one piece of news was especially disturbing—the university planned to shut down the SOU pool on June 30 if user groups did not agree to pay for maintenance costs.
The numbers bandied around were astronomical. While high school teams currently pay around $20 an hour to use the pool, the figure was going to go up to $100 an hour. And it’s not just Ashland High School swimming and water polo teams. According to Cyndi Mathews, Executive Director of the newly formed Aquatics Foundation of Southern Oregon, the pool is the only facility to accommodate competitive aquatic events in all of southern Oregon.
“Our non-profit group represents pool user groups all over the valley,” Mathews said in an interview with the Sneak Preview. “They include water polo players and competitive swimmers at Ashland High School, Crater, Eagle Point, North and South Medford, and Phoenix High School. Also depending on this aquatics complex are community groups like the Rogue Valley Masters, the Southern Oregon Masters, and the Southern Oregon Water Polo teams.”
Officials at SOU, while empathizing with all the user groups, feel their hands are tied. The money just isn’t there.
“Over the course of the years, we have effectively been subsidizing these user groups,” said SOU Athletic Director Dennis Francois. “Our student use is very minimal, and there are no classes that use the pool anymore. We have all these maintenance and operating costs that aren’t being met.”
Cyndi Mathews and the Aquatics Foundation have been meeting regularly with officials at SOU to come up with a solution. So far, not much has worked.
“They basically told us that they no longer have the funding,” Mathews said. “If the aquatics community couldn’t come up with $87,000, plus another $25,000 that they want to have as an emergency fund, then they’re going to close the pool on June 30.”
Francois maintains that the university can no longer continue to subsidize the pool for the various user groups. “The pool has to be become a self-supporting facility,” he said. “We raised the rates 50% last year, but that wasn’t even close to paying for the maintenance and operating costs. With our financial situation, we just can’t afford to do that anymore.”
The costs of pool maintenance
Not everyone agrees with the university’s logic or their figures. Frank Philipps, an Ashland resident who has been active in the Rogue Valley Masters for over twenty years, thinks they’re exaggerating.
“I personally don’t think it costs $86,000 to maintain the pool, but we can never get the figures from them,” Philipps said. “The problem has been that maintenance has been deferred over the last 20 years, and it just adds up. They do a great job when an emergency happens, but it’s the day-to-day stuff that gets neglected.”
Philipps also thinks the university is making more money off the pool than they say. “Students are charged a fee for the pool,” he said. “The university says very few students use it, but I always see a whole group of students there during their allotted times.”
Don Robertson, Director of the Ashland Parks & Recs Department, thinks the university is fairly accurate in its estimates.
“I worked with the Oregon Recreational Parks Association and did some research last winter and spring on behalf of the SOU pool,” Robertson said. “We determined that a catastrophic failure of the pool was extremely unlikely and that the likelihood of making usable repairs was good. The pool was in good shape and could be maintained in its present condition for the next 15-20 years.”
SOU’s cost estimates, according to Robertson, were on the mark. “Their estimate of $86,000 a year was very reasonable,” he said.
Masters swimmer Craig Mather, an Ashland doctor, thinks $100 an hour, however is overkill. “I called around to various pools throughout the state, and most of them charge an average of $20 an hour. Granted, we’ve been getting a pretty good deal from SOU over the years, but $100 an hour is too much. No one will be able to pay that.”
He also questions the $86,000 maintenance charge. “The first time they met with us, they said it was $53,000,” he said. “Then all of sudden it went up to $86,000.”
If SOU goes through with its plan, the Aquatics Foundation wants to help.
“The university has asked all the user groups to give them approximate information on the number of hours they will use the pool in order to come up with an hourly rate,” Mathews said. “That sounds reasonable, but it seems to me that SOU is the largest user group, and that outside users shouldn’t be held entirely responsible for all the costs.”
Convincing the university of that may take some doing. As it stands now, they want approximately $100 an hour from each of the user groups to meet their costs.
“Obviously, no one can afford that,” Mathews said. “The reason the Foundation was put together was to help defray some of the costs. Right now, all of the high school teams use it for their meets. As a Foundation, what we would ideally like to do is raise enough money to cover those costs. We got started a little late to apply for grants and corporate sponsorships, but we’re hosting a number of fundraising events.”
Those events have included car washes and swim meets, and there will be a dance party at Standing Stone Brewery on June 9, featuring Jerry Attrick & the Pacemakers. The group is also accepting private donations.
Mathews also heard word that the Legislature is revising some of its budget estimates based on a strong state economy, and that $15 million might be spread around the six state colleges. “If that’s true, maybe some of that money could go toward the pool,” Mathews said.
When I mentioned that possibility to Dennis Francois, he stood firm. “That wouldn’t change anything,” he said. “The pool is not included in any of our budget projections. Extra money from the Legislature would go toward programs that support the primary purpose of the university.”
Medford to the rescue?
One new development that could ease the pain for local swimming groups is a proposed indoor aquatics and fitness center in Medford. On May 31, the Medford City Council discussed plans for the $28.5 million project.
Brian Sjothun, Director of the Medford Parks & Recs Department, told the Sneak Preview that the project is only in the planning stages.
“I made a presentation to the City Council today,” Sjothun said. “We asked that they enter a contract with the Trust for Public Lands, a non-profit group, to do a study on exactly how much money would be saved by closing the two public pools and operating a fitness center that would bring in money. They should have their recommendations by this summer.”
Of course, the voters already rejected a $38 million library levy. How motivated would they be to approve a swimming pool?
“There’s no comparison with the library levy,” Sjothun said. “They didn’t have a plan to save operating costs, which is basically what we’re doing. Right now we subsidize the two public pools at a cost of $159,000 a year. With the financial plan we’re putting together that revolves around a new fitness center, we would lower that subsidy by $100,000 a year.”
The new facility would generate revenue because it would include not just an indoor pool, but a fitness center with basketball courts and exercise facilities.
“We have looked at similar facilities in Eugene and elsewhere, and while they don’t retire their debt service, they do come close,” Sjothun said. “If the club has all the bells and whistles, we can charge $4 to get in. You can’t charge $4 at pools that were built in 1950.”
When the committee makes its recommendations this summer, the Medford City Council will be asked to place a bond measure for around $28 million on the ballot. Whether they can convince the voters that it’s a money-saving venture in the long run is another matter.
Even if that happens, the reality of the fitness center is probably five years down the road. Meanwhile, Cyndi Mathews and the Aquatics Foundation are doing their best to keep the SOU pool open.
“Hundreds of kids and adults use that pool every week,” Mathews said. “It is the only competitive facility in the valley, and it draws thousands of dollars into the local economy. It’s also a good selling tool for people thinking of enrolling at SOU.”
For more information on the Aquatics Foundation of Southern Oregon, go to Save.Aquatics@yahoo.com.
