The future of Juneau’s Aquatics Board is in question as its three-year charter expires this spring.
If the Juneau Assembly doesn’t renew it, the board will cease to be after May 28 and management of Juneau’s two swimming pools will revert to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
The Aquatics Board was created following a 2014 referendum placed on the ballot by voters upset with the city’s proposal to close Juneau’s downtown swimming pool.
But the Juneau Assembly later watered down the board’s independence by putting the city’s parks and recreation director in charge.
Aquatics Board Chair Max Mertz said it’s worth considering empowering the board to choose its own director.
“Right now, the Parks and Rec director is the Aquatics Board chief executive officer,” Mertz said Thursday. “And there’s been some inefficiencies and issues with that and so possibly it would make more sense to have a fully empowered board that hired and fired its own director.”
Another option floated is to have a third-party nonprofit manage the pools.
The Aquatics Board will make its recommendation to the Assembly next month.
The board is studying, “what’s really the best way to operate these community pools,” Mertz said. “That’s really the decision the Assembly has in front of it.”
Park and Recreation Director Kirk Duncan said he supports the board’s desire for public input ahead of the Assembly’s decision.
“I do not want to sway that input at this time by stating a desire for a particular option,” Duncan wrote in a short statement.
The Aquatics Board will hold two public meetings to gather input ahead of its recommendation to the Assembly. The meetings will be at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 20 in the Assembly Chambers and 5:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Dimond Aquatic Center.
Editor’s Note: Kirk Duncan is a member of KTOO’s board of directors.
