Pool Assessments? $2500 per family plus huge dues hike

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, explain what it is they are having done. No one can comment intelligently without knowing some details.

Total pool overhaul, total bathroom overhaul, new driveway, new parking lot. Pool foundation is leaking, trees damaged foundation. They say its like 3.5 million project - costs have gone up, etc. It feels like they could just do the pool and the driveway and leave the parking lot and bathrooms for another day, but they don't want to do that. The renderings are very nice, but they claim we are losing members from wait list because there is not a separate "learn to swim" area which seems speculative. It's a lot of money, and we scrimp in other ways to pay for it because kids love it so much. Membership is capped under 400 because of county regulations, so they essentially need a large assessment to get a good interest rate for loan. They have healthy reserves but don't want to use them (this also has something to do with the interest rate).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A one-time assessment for a major maintenance project or facilities upgrade is not all that unusual—this kind of thing is pretty common in shared spaces like condos. These assessments are often necessary to keep things safe and functioning long-term.

Also, having a waitlist does not cancel out the need for capital repairs. Dues usually go toward regular operating costs, not big-ticket infrastructure work.

Adding up your own swim team expenses, snacks, and other extras is specific to your situation and not really tied to the financial health of the pool itself. Those are optional costs that not every member pays.

And the bit about “Boomers’ grandchildren" is not fair. This kind of upkeep benefits everyone now and in the future. It is just part of responsible stewardship.

Stinks to have to shell out the extra money, I agree!

This is a really well stated, considerate, and correctly informed answer that I would have liked to have written if I had the time and patience!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our pool is saying if they don't charge families a lump sum payment of $2500 per family plus hike up dues, they may have to shut down (even though there is a long waiting list).

We were just adding up all the costs for swim team, and food donations, stroke and turn, guest passes and our current dues - and that's already $2000...We had a budget meeting where it was like if you can't do a lump payment we will let you make a 3-4 small payments with interest over a year or so. But the tone was very much like only ask for a payment plan under serious duress otherwise you want the pool to die. Does this seem normal? Especially in this economic climate? It feels like we are building a pool for the boomers grandchildren to enjoy as teens. It really skeeved us out - or maybe we are just naive.

What is the 2500 covering- how many families/members/etc? Are they unwilling to take loans or is this because they havent increased dues for decades and have loans that have come to roost. Speaking of boomers!!!!
We have the same problem at a smaller scale. Years- decades really- of the board putting things off and now its year after year of we need a new x and a new y and a new z. These are KNOWNS as in a roof replacement. Bathrooms are shite.
They also have lots of rules that make little kid stuff not fun- ex. no diving for toys at the bottom of the pool- but the adults can bring alcohol to the parties. And theres lots of social events for older folks, which again, great but the pool pays for those and then stuff for families is pay per event.

Adults having alcohol isn’t really a great example of rules that favor older people. You want them to say legal adults can’t drink alcohol at your pool?

Alcohol doesn’t belong anywhere near a pool, it’s a huge liability.

Are there pools that don’t allow alcohol?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why pools with robust/growing waitlists don’t charge $50 or $75 to be on the waitlist with that amounted credited on your first year of membership.

I agree. I was Treasurer for my kids' non-profit daycare, and we did this. The waitlist was still huge, but at least you knew who was serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, explain what it is they are having done. No one can comment intelligently without knowing some details.

Total pool overhaul, total bathroom overhaul, new driveway, new parking lot. Pool foundation is leaking, trees damaged foundation. They say its like 3.5 million project - costs have gone up, etc. It feels like they could just do the pool and the driveway and leave the parking lot and bathrooms for another day, but they don't want to do that. The renderings are very nice, but they claim we are losing members from wait list because there is not a separate "learn to swim" area which seems speculative. It's a lot of money, and we scrimp in other ways to pay for it because kids love it so much. Membership is capped under 400 because of county regulations, so they essentially need a large assessment to get a good interest rate for loan. They have healthy reserves but don't want to use them (this also has something to do with the interest rate).

$2,500 x 400 is $1M. So how are they doing a 3.5M project for 1M without tapping the reserves?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, explain what it is they are having done. No one can comment intelligently without knowing some details.

Total pool overhaul, total bathroom overhaul, new driveway, new parking lot. Pool foundation is leaking, trees damaged foundation. They say its like 3.5 million project - costs have gone up, etc. It feels like they could just do the pool and the driveway and leave the parking lot and bathrooms for another day, but they don't want to do that. The renderings are very nice, but they claim we are losing members from wait list because there is not a separate "learn to swim" area which seems speculative. It's a lot of money, and we scrimp in other ways to pay for it because kids love it so much. Membership is capped under 400 because of county regulations, so they essentially need a large assessment to get a good interest rate for loan. They have healthy reserves but don't want to use them (this also has something to do with the interest rate).

$2,500 x 400 is $1M. So how are they doing a 3.5M project for 1M without tapping the reserves?

Not OP, but at our pool they took out a loan and spread the assessments over 3 years.

But our repairs cost $200K.

I can totally understand why OP thinks they should handle the necessary repairs first, pause, and then handle the other things. That said - would you like a smaller assessment spread over many years that totals a higher cost to do it that way?

[Anonymous]

What amount is in the “healthy reserves”? I’m a pp club board member and we have done some fairly expensive projects (relative to our budget) over the past 10 years, but we always have more we could do.
Our budget is tight. We need more members. I think we’d have a tough time getting members to pay a $250 special assessment let alone $2,500. They’d go elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

What pool? I am in MoCo and a lot of these pools were built in the 1950s and just get more and more expensive to maintain. Pool foundation cracking is a big deal. While a $2,500 assessment is high, I don't think we'd save a ton of money by joining a different pool (since we'd have to buy in again), so we'd probably just pay it.

[Anonymous]

Honestly this is pretty common and something a lot of pools will be facing. A long waitlist helps because they know if they have a special assessment that current members won't pay someone they can get someone on the waitlist will pay it.

Most pools in this area were built in the 50s and 60s and have not been upgraded in years. Some are gradfathered in to ADA regulations but once they start renovations will need to become compliant which is more money. When they upgrade they need to account for this.

I know the pool we belong too will be getting hit hard very soon. A lot of that is due to an incompetent board president who refused to raise dues for years. Despite knowing there were major repair on the horizon he didn't take steps to build the reserves. They finally raised dues but it was too late. With no reserve they would also struggle to get a loan for major repairs.

It doesn't help that as others have mentioned pool operating costs are also higher which isn't helping membership costs and building reserves.

[Anonymous]

Agree it sucks to get hit with that - but it seems unlikely that this is about boomer's grandchildren.

I'm on our pool board. What I've learned is that maintaining a pool - especially one built in the 60s or 70s with aging infrastructure (as many are around here) - can be really expensive. Every year we're worrying about balancing keeping dues affordable and doing enough upkeep. I know two local pools that did go under because they could not afford major repairs.

If your pool has a waitlist it's easier to do these things since if you decide it's not worth it for your family there's someone eager enough to take your place. That's a decision you'll need to balance.

[Anonymous]

Our pool took out a huge loan and would not share the specifics or be transparent. They significantly raised rates. Many of us bailed for other pools.

[Anonymous]

its just expensive to manage a facility that has huge insurance costs, is run by a volunteer board, and was built 70 years ago. All the area pools are dealing with similar problems. There are a couple of different ways to structure the assessment. When we did our renovation initially, we planned to do a similar assessment, with a smaller dues hike. Members complained, and we switched to just increasing dues significantly, and increasing our initiation fee significantly. Going into the renovation we had a healthy waitlist, we did run through the entire waitlist the year the increase went into effect b/c we lost so many members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What pool? I am in MoCo and a lot of these pools were built in the 1950s and just get more and more expensive to maintain. Pool foundation cracking is a big deal. While a $2,500 assessment is high, I don't think we'd save a ton of money by joining a different pool (since we'd have to buy in again), so we'd probably just pay it.

In some places a family could easily go to a different pool and not have a buy in/bond purchase or the buy in might be about the same or even less than annual dues of the pool they are leaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:its just expensive to manage a facility that has huge insurance costs, is run by a volunteer board, and was built 70 years ago. All the area pools are dealing with similar problems. There are a couple of different ways to structure the assessment. When we did our renovation initially, we planned to do a similar assessment, with a smaller dues hike. Members complained, and we switched to just increasing dues significantly, and increasing our initiation fee significantly. Going into the renovation we had a healthy waitlist, we did run through the entire waitlist the year the increase went into effect b/c we lost so many members.

Having a waitlist definitely helps in a situation like this. I’ve been on our board for 17 years and we’ve never been close to having a waitlist. We’ve tried various incentives over the years, but it’s always been tough building up our membership base. We did see a nice boost in 2022 and 2023, but the numbers have dropped back again the past two years. Ten more membership families would help a lot. It’s a balancing act for sure.

[Anonymous]

The issue too is that all these pools need major renovation and capital improvements, but most members have no clue because they don't attend board meetings. They looks at the seemingly high dues and wonder the pool doesn't look like a country club. Not understanding that even at $850+/season there is still not a lot of money left over after operating costs for visible things like new furniture while also saving money for the major projects that are on the horizon.