Citizen Wausau

The debate continues…  The debate about the war in Iraq?  No.  The debate about earmark spending in congress?  No.  The debate about bailing out banks and other large companies?  No.  I speak of course of the debate about what to do about Wausau’s three community swimming pools.

 

I should probably be clear on from what angle I look at this issue.  Although I am not a resident of the City of Wausau, I own and manage quite a bit of property in the City; I look at the issue as a taxpayer.  I don’t swim, I don’t know how to swim, I have very little desire to know how to swim.  I in no way directly benefit from swimming pools, water parks or anything of that nature.

 

That being said, just because I see no personal use in this amenity does not mean that I do not acknowledge that others do.  For a while, on the back bumpers of Everest Metro police cars they didn’t have “To Serve and Protect” but instead had “It’s About Quality of Life.”  I fully agree.

 

For those unfamiliar, Wausau has three outdoor swimming pools distributed throughout the city.  Over recent years, use of these pools has been on a steady decline while the costs to maintain them have been on a steady increase.  The term that I like is “hemorrhaging cash”.  The debate is do we continue to put money into the pools (based on their age, they are all in need of high dollar updates/repairs), do we abandon the pools for a centralized water park similar to those run by Weston and Schofield/Rothschild, or do we follow a completely different path?

 

One argument I hear often that I disagree with is that the Wausau pools should be closed because they don’t make money.  The water parks run by some of the other Metro communities come very close to breaking even and from time to time, might actually have numbers in the black.  I disagree with this argument because that is not the job of government.  It is not the job of government to provide services that the market can provide.  And if there was money to be made in swimming pools and water parks, private companies should take advantage of the profit-making opportunity.  The job of government is to provide those services that have no way they can “make money” – such as “quality of life” amenities.

 

Parks don’t make money.

 

However, to be fair, parks don’t cost nearly as much to maintain as the pools do.  It would be interesting to know that based on use, what does it cost per dollar for people who use some of the parks in town vs. what does it cost per dollar for people who use the pools?  This is a number that we can probably never learn because the number of people who use the parks would be an estimate at best.

 

I understand that these neighborhood pools are about quality of life.  I get that, they are amenities similar to parks and expecting them to cash flow is unreasonable.  On the other hand, if an amenity’s costs are disproportionate to the number of people using that amenity, one needs to ask if the pools really do contribute to the “quality of life” in the City of Wausau as a whole.

 

The City Council has agreed to lower admissions to $1.00 with the hope of increasing the use of the pools.  Again, the object isn’t to make more money – the object is to increase use.  If the fees are lowered and things like concessions and more chairs are added and use of the pools continues to decline – it should be clear that maybe this amenity does not contribute to the quality of life.

 

So then what?  Wausau builds an aquatic park like Weston’s?  Well that is just silly.  How many aquatic parks does one metro area need?  Weston has a big one.  Schofield/Rothschild have one… let’s not forget the Lodge at Cedar Creek, though this is a for-profit privately owned one, it still counts.

 

One of the biggest wastes of taxpayer money in this metro area is duplication of services.

 

What is the answer to the pool question?  I don’t know… but I do think that the decision to hold off on multi-million dollar improvements and doing some little things to increase participation is a good way to go.

 

I would love to see partnerships between not only Weston-Schofield-Rothschild-Wausau-etc., but partnerships with the school districts, the UW, and other entities who have pools would be a wonderful thing.

 

I do believe though, that with decreasing the user fees and adding amenities and the “use it or lose it” publicity around the pools will make this summer critical.  If the pools continue to see declining usage, I think even the strongest supporters of the neighborhood pools will have to concede to the writing on the wall.

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Had I not lived it – I would never have believed it. This my friends is a break-out year for Granite Peak. They made it happen up there on the hill. I have been skiing a lot this year, especially with my eldest son, and the snow on the hill is fantastic. I’m not a Midwest punk when it comes to skiing. Before I took a job here I was a grad student at the University of Colorado at Boulder for seven years. My wife and I had season passes to mountains big and huge – and the ski hill here, while not comparable in size, has the right stuff to compete in terms of value and enjoyability.

The lift lines are short, the terrain is challenging, and the proximity is unbeatable. I talked to a lift operator and he said that over Christmas weekend over five thousand people skied the hill. What kind of bread is that bringing into our city? Serious bread – that’s what kind.

I talk to the folks riding the lift all the time – they come from Chicago and Milwaukee and Minneapolis just to ski at our local resort. I see UWMC students up there everyday defying gravity at the snowboarding terrain parks. One can’t really help but notice the lifers too – those elderly folks who retain their youth by steadfastly negotiating the slopes, as they have done for the past six or so decades. People who love to ski are invariably strong environmentalists – they are the first to realize that the pollution from the driving they did to get up to the hill has to be offset in other ways.

I hear this past year the hill purchased a new Snowcat plow to groom and shape the hills. We need more – larger terrain and another high-speed sixer, for starters. Who would have thought that granite could form an iridescent jewel? Well done.

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There’s something I’ve always been interested in since moving to Wausau. It’s our big old river. Yes, I understand the history of logging and mills and industry hugging the banks and as a result most of the venerable stream meanders through our fair city without engaging us overly much.

There are Oak and Fern Islands, Gilbert and Memorial Parks, another couple of seldom-used parks on the west bank, the sometimes kayaking run of whitewater, and some stretches of “riverwalk” paths. But for the most part, there’s scrub and old warehouses, a cement company, some sort of hardware wholesaler and other businesses, fenced-off no-man’s land, etc. No news to any of our residents. I have heard some ideas and proposals for this and that project, but nothing so far that I’d say represents a grand vision for incorporating the river into our culture and identity in a big way. I just think of the communities I’ve been in where their river weaves its way through the very heart of the local identity, with long stretches of riverside roads and parks, cafes, promenades, amenities and all that. What great use of a natural resource for everyone’s benefit.

So, here in Wausau … How about more reclamation and beautification projects, more public access, more visual access, boat/canoe/kayak rentals, fishing docks, a riverside cultural and entertainment corridor, interesting lighting of bridges and shorelines, etc.?

Well, I don’t expect any of our CW contributors to come forward with said grand vision for the whole river, but maybe someone here and someone there can offer things like, “I know of a stretch over by wherever that might be available for public access if it’s cleaned up.” or “My uncle owns a parcel that he wants to sell cheap.” or “I am fabulously wealthy and I want to contribute to a huge river project.” Hope springs eternal, eh? But ideas flow like a river; let’s open the dam and see what drifts by.

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