Elgin pools have banner year

Temperatures are taking a dip now, but single-day paid attendance at Elgin's two outdoor public pools over the long, hot summer was up.

The city's two aquatic centers - Lords Park and Wing Park - saw a combined 35-percent jump this past summer compared to 2009.

That's no surprise, since 2009 had an uncharacteristically mild summer. But the 2010 numbers are still almost 6 percent higher than 2008's.

"It was great. The numbers were strong," said Randy Reopelle, director of the city's parks and recreation department. "Obviously, it's related to the warm, hot summer. (But) we have a good staff and they do a good job."

Aquatics supervisor Gregg Bruggeman said the Lords Park Aquatic Center had 9,533 single-day visitors in 2010, a 39-percent increase over the 6,841 in 2009.

In 2008, there were 10,206 single-day visitors at the Lords Park pool.

The numbers from the Wing Park Aquatic Center on the west side of town tell a similar story.

Bruggeman said 21,779 single-day visitors went to the Wing Park pool this year, a 33.2-percent jump from the 16,344 in 2009 and still ahead of the 19,452 who came out in 2008.

The figures do not show the number of visits by people who bought season passes.

Last year, the performance of the city's pools was one of the bright spots during budget time as officials were able to reduce operating costs.

Generally speaking, public pools receive a subsidy from their respective parks and recreation departments or park districts that operate them.

Reopelle said the final tally for 2010 won't be known for weeks because invoices are still being paid.

But Bruggeman is hopeful the Wing Park location, which is the city's primary outdoor aquatic draw, may even turn a profit this year.

In 2008, the Wing Park facility had an operating deficit of $30,300, but that shrunk to a deficit of $17,815 in 2009.

Bruggeman attributes part of this to eliminating the 11 a.m. to noon window on weekends and closing at 6 p.m. instead of 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Bruggeman said research showed the pools were sparsely used during those times and he did not receive any complaints about the reduced hours.

"We trimmed five hours off our hours of operation and it showed," he said.

The Lords Park pool had an operating deficit of $115,528 in 2008 and a $69,788 deficit in 2009.