MORGAN HILL
– Despite a split 3-2 decision by the City Council Wednesday
night, the $12.2 million Aquatic Center is still on course to open
by Memorial Day in 2004.
MORGAN HILL – Despite a split 3-2 decision by the City Council Wednesday night, the $12.2 million Aquatic Center is still on course to open by Memorial Day in 2004.
The council majority approved hiring Nova Partners, Inc. to act as construction managers on the project. Council members Hedy Chang and Steve Tate voted no.
Having a construction manager on board is considered valuable by the city staff because, with the council-approved aggressive project schedule, experienced oversight can help identify and resolve problems before they affect the budget and timeline, according to the staff report and projects manager Glenn Ritter.
The center is to be built next to the current soccer complex on Condit Road, south Barrett Avenue and east of Highway 101.
Nova Partners was chosen as the most-qualified of two firms applying because of its experience.
“We wanted a firm with experience in pool construction,” said Ritter. He told the council that negotiations are now under way to fit the project’s scope of work to the firm’s bid.
It is a matter of squeezing $499,952-worth of work into $427,247.
Nova has worked on pool projects for the Cupertino Sports Center, the Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club and the Kalele Kai Recreational project in Hawaii, plus two “green” projects. The council has determined that the aquatic center be built as environmentally conscious (or green) as possible.
But Tate was looking at another side of the aquatics project.
“This is another step rushing toward what we should be holding back on,” Tate said. He wanted to delay the facility until it could pay for its own operations costs.
A recent study by Sports Management Group showed that the competition pool would not pay for itself and, the more months the center remained open, the more money would be lost.
Tate said he would accept the project with “more phasing,” one where the center opens with only the recreation components in place, with the 50-meter competition pool added at a future date.
“Get the recreational, money-making part up and running,” he said, “then add the competition pool.”
Councilman Greg Sellers said the aquatics subcommittee is looking at other operational models, ones where the complete center would lose less money.
“SMG’s estimates are a worst-case scenario,” he said.
Based on nine months of operation, the subsidy would be $154,000; on 12 months of operation, $276,000 annually by the third year.
Councilman Larry Carr, who sits – with Mayor Dennis Kennedy – on the aquatic subcommittee, added some historical perspective.
“I’m not sure that the recreation side was the original intent (of the project),” he said. The 50-meter pool was first, and the recreational pools were added later to support the competition.
Chang was also disturbed by the future potential drain on the city’s budget from a need to subsidize the center. She mentioned that outside operators claimed to be able to operate the center without city subsidies.
A suggestion in 2002 that an outside entity – notably the YMCA – might be allowed to operate the proposed indoor recreation center caused considerably acrimony and discussion. The city eventually scrapped the idea and plans to run the center itself, if it is ever built. Recent budget crunches are causing the council to re-think the project.
“We received three expressions of interest,” said Ed Tewes, city manager, of proposed aquatic center operators. Tewes said he and his staff met with two of them. One said, if the city contracts for his services and allows him adjacent land to design, building and operate a mini-water park, he could operate the entire project at a profit.
“The (aggressive) schedule is no longer important to me,” Chang said. But she winced at a deficit in 2004-05. “I’m a little nervous about the whole thing.”
Chang said she would favor Tate’s delay of a year because the city may need the money required to subsidize the center to hire more police officers
“That would be better for the City of Morgan Hill,” said Sellers, “but not for the community.”
Tate said he could not support the motion (to hire Nova Partners) because he could not support the schedule.
Kennedy said the city would always have the option of operating only during the summer months – at a profit and no deficit.
