Uncertain Of Decision

I am a City of Kelowna property tax payer who is yet uncertain of the City's need to build another pool (50 meter or otherwise).

I frequent the Athans Pool complex in Rutland and have observed that this facility has plenty of excess capacity. There is usually only a handful of people there, (that is any time that I am using this facility). I also recall a few years back that the Johnson-Bentley facility on the Westside had to restructure it's financing strategy due to lack of users at that facility. I am not exactly sure how much capacity is available at the Parkinson Facility but can't envision it being over utilized when others are not.

I also observed that the City of Kelowna did not have a rush of proponents willing to enter into a Public-Private Partnership to build this new facility containing a fifty meter pool. Could this be because the Kelowna market does not warrant another pool facility, or perhaps more simply that it would not be a profitable undertaking. More probably the latter.

In an undertaking such as a construction project of this financial magnitude, I believe that City Council should let the rate-payers decide whether we want to endure a 4.5% property tax increase to pay for a facility that the private sector decided not to build.

When is the referendum?

WJM