Report: Revenue at Juneau’s city-run pools up 38 percent

Aquatics Board Chair Max Mertz presents the annual report to the Juneau Assembly. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/ KTOO)
Aquatics Board Chair Max Mertz presents the annual report to the Juneau Assembly. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/ KTOO)

The city’s Aquatics Board presented its first annual report to the Juneau Assembly on Monday.

The assembly created the board last spring to improve the quality of service at the city’s two swimming pools — the Augustus Brown Swimming Pool downtown and the Dimond Park Aquatic Center in the valley.

Board chair Max Mertz told the assembly that the group has made a lot of progress in their first year. Some of the changes they’ve made include reducing the cost of annual passes and allowing customers to use their passes at both city pools.

“We’ve had pretty stunning success, honestly,” Mertz says. “This year compared to last year, since the new rates were implemented, we’re about 38 percent up on revenue.”

According to the report, the pools recover a nearly a third of the more than $2 million it takes to run them. Mertz hopes the board can increase that within the next two years. Food services and partnerships with larger organizations are part of the plans.

“We want to figure out a way that we can market the pools for corporations in such a way that it makes sense for them to buy passes for their employees and use the pools,” he said.

The board is set to sunset in spring of 2018. Until then, Mertz says the seven-member group will continue to find ways to improve the city’s aquatics services in staffing, cost recovery and customer satisfaction.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the increase in revenue. 

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