Dip in the pool to cost more in Geneva next year

It will cost more to swim at Geneva's Sunset Pool next year.

And the Geneva Park District might sell season passes to nonresidents in an effort to make more money at the pool.

The park board voted last week to raise the season pass and daily admission rates. It wants more information before voting on the nonresident passes, however.

Daily admission was raised $1 for residents but will stay the same for nonresidents. Resident passes increased $5 to $20, depending on the type of pass, such as senior, individual and four different family passes. For example, a four-person family pass will go up from $170 to $190.

A similar nonresident pass would cost $285 under the staff's proposal.

"We really feel that it is a benefit to our residents in the long run," said Nicole Vickers, who was aquatics supervisor last summer. She said bringing in supplemental income could hold down costs for residents.

Commissioner Mike Abts wants to make sure there's still room for Geneva residents to get in the pool on a hot day. There were 55,230 paid admissions last summer, of which 3,035 were nonresidents. The numbers don't include toddlers, who get in for free, or people who are there to attend birthday parties or after-hours parties sold by the district.

He noted that when voters agreed to borrow money to build the pool in 1995, the district said it would not sell nonresident passes.

But Commissioner Todd Karas said the district should "not turn a blind eye to a source of revenue." He also suggested the district could set a target for "early-bird" sales of discounted season passes for residents, and only sell nonresident passes if that goal is not met.

Recreation Superintendent Sheavoun Lambillotte said the pool typically reaches its capacity of 1,350 people five or six times a season. Last summer, it happened once. When that happens, no one else is let in until somebody leaves.

Season pass membership purchases dropped 6 percent this year, from 1,589 to 1,495. But daily fee admissions by Geneva residents climbed to 11,435, compared to 9,519 in 2007. Vickers suspects that because of concern about the economy, people were unwilling to shell out for passes. Pass sales have dropped every year since 2005.

The pool was open every day of its 93-day summer season.