LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock officials are combing the city budget for $18,000 to keep two public pools open for two more weeks this summer, Assistant City Manager Bryan Day said Monday.
On Friday, Day announced that the pools would not close July 18 as the city had planned in December budget talks.
“In December, when the decision was made to cut the season almost in half, no one [was] thinking about the pools,” he said. “But as the weather gets hot, the pools become so important.”
In December, the city Board of Directors decided to cut the hours of the Southwest Little Rock Community Center Swimming Pools and the Jim Dailey Aquatic Center.
The Southwest Community Center cut its hours after its budget was reduced by $5,336. The pool was initially scheduled to be open for seven weeks until July 24.
The city cut $54,934 from the Jim Dailey Fitness and Aquatic Center budget by closing it on Sundays in the spring and having it open from June 5 to July 18 - half the usual 12 weeks of summer pool time.
By steering money toward pool operations, both pools will remain open until Aug. 1.
Day said City Manager Bruce Moore directed officials to find a way to keep the pools open longer after the closings were mentioned at the June 22 city board meeting.
During the discussion, two city directors asked whether the Fire Department could open neighborhood fire hydrants to let children play in the water as “in the old days.”
“The next day, Bruce Moore sent us to the drawing board to find a way to keep the pools open longer,” Day said.
The solution will include some of the $721,036 left over from 2009 in the War Memorial Park budget. The park is an enterprise fund, meaning it generates its own money and gets some support from the city’s general fund.
“One easy fix is that money from War Memorial,” Day said. “We’ll be able to use some of that balance to take care of the pool out there. It’s about $9,000 per pool. That money could potentially beused to take care of the other pool if needed, but we want to be very careful since the money is used for repairs and maintenance.”
Day said an option to pay for the southwest Little Rock pool would involve looking at various savings the Parks and Recreation Department has made over the year.
“Our fiscal year runs January to December. Since we’re in the middle of the fiscal year, we have some time, and the Parks Department has done well with savings so there’s some flexibility there,” he said.
In December, when the decision was made to cut the pools’ hours, the city also cut 17 employees from the payroll and closed neighborhood alert centers to balance the budget.
At the most recent city board meeting, Finance Director Sara Lenehan recommended measures for the city to take to close a potential $3 million deficit in the city’s $131 million 2011 budget.
After discussing various cutbacks that had already been made, including the pool hours, Moore told directors there is little left to trim.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 06/29/2010