Travis County Commissioners Court
March 29, 2005
Item 15
Number 15. Discuss and take appropriate action on a lease agreement with the ymca of Austin for the operation of the swimming pool at east metro park.
>> we're not asking the court to take action today because the ymca will get this tomorrow night, so we want to make sure that everybody's on board before we ask the court to adopt it. But let us step through it real quickly so you understand this is a lease agreement, not a management agreement. And that was somewhat at the direction of the court, so we want to be sure that we're following the path that you wanted us to take on this.
>> basically, a little bit of background. As you know, in November 2001 the county voters approved $10.8 million for the land acquisition and the construction of east metro park. The county hired land design studios to design that park and developed a master plan for it. Basically after the land acquisition, the design costs were $7.35 million for the actual construction of the park that along with 500,000 from Texas parks and wildlife. In October of 2004, Travis County had entered into that agreement with dr horton and dick wrathgaber to construct a pool house at east metro. Currently that pool project is under construction. It's scheduled to open June 1st. And as joe mentioned, what we want to do is lease the pool facility, basically that pool complex, to the ymca, who will manage the pool operations, they'll provide certified life guards, and the pool programming, such as swimming lessons and physical fitness and such. As we've said before, the ymca is uniquely qualified to do this. The pool itself has four lanes for lap swimming, has a zero entry depth, splash play area for everyone. And the pool house itself includes the men women's -- men and women's dressing room and restrooms and an office. The lease in a nutshell, i'll try to hit the high points, it's a five-year lease. The ymca will assume the pool operations inside the pool's perimeter fence and within the fool house. The y will have -- within the pool house. The y will have access to the pool and operate the pool. The ymca will maintain and repair the pool, its infrastructure. The county will retain access rights to periodically inspect the pool and operation of the pool facility. Under this lease agreement the pool will remain public. It will be a public swimming pool and will be open between memorial day and labor day of each year according to the lease. The ymca will maintain financial records that can be accessible to the county, and pool operations and maintenance will be funded through homeowners subscription fees from participating area subdivisions through their annual passes and daily user fees. Currently there's approximately 300 developed house tops or developed lots associated with the dr horton briar creek subdivision, and that will provide subscriber fees to help fund the ymca pool operation. One last item, the Commissioners court retains the right to annually set the pool's fee structure. There may be some other items. In my budget cycle this year, we requested $25,000 as a reserve and we have that as a reserve that we can call on if there is an operational deficiency in this, and that's how we requested it through our budget process. We anticipate requesting this for the next five years and actually has time goes on as a park, the pool gains popularity and we would expect that we would not have to use that and delve into that reserve account.
>> but the board is supposed to make a decision on this tomorrow?
>> they're actually not making a decision tomorrow. Basically they will get an executive summary tomorrow at the board meeting. From that my understanding is they will either give authority to the president of the ymca to go ahead and either sign the lease or continue negotiation if there's any other point, or they will bring it up at their next board meeting, which will be at the end of April.
>> April 27th is their next board meeting.
>> they meet once a month. They seem to be pretty interested in this. We don't have any belief that they're not going to be interested in this relationship. They like the partnership. There may be some fine tuning details that we have to incorporate into the agreement as a result of tomorrow's meeting with their executive board.
>> I see Commissioner Davis coming off the high diving board right now. [ laughter ] on the first day. Commissioner, is there a motion?
>> no action today, judge.
>> if we do come back next week or when we get things worked out with the y.
>> there will be a big ribbon cutting ceremony out there.
>> thank y'all.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 12:50 PM