The cost of this summer’s forced closure of the Sam Ketcham Memorial Pool has been tallied at $98,500.
That was the message given in a staff report to city council Tuesday night.
“That’s a sobering reminder of how much business goes through the complex,” Coun. Geoff Bourdon said of the accounting.
The events surrounding the closure were outlined in a report to council and stated that in early June “significant” water loss — 20,000 gallons per day — was noted from the main pool tank during regular maintenance monitoring.
The pool was closed on June 30 for work to begin on the repair.
The work was completed six weeks later; however, the report notes that the closure occurred during what is the biggest revenue generating period for the pool/fitness area.
The fitness centre remained open during the pool closure. Regardless, the closure “significantly” impacted drop-in customers. Three swimming lesson sets were lost and a fourth was “significantly” depleted due to an inability to predict an exact opening date.
The report further outlined areas where financial losses occurred: $20,000 was the cost to locate and repair the leaks; approximately $30,000 in lost revenue; approximately $23,000 in lost admission revenue; a loss of approximately $24,000 for group and individual facility passes; and approximately $5,000 for chemicals to keep the pool operating from discovery of leak until closure.
Other revenue areas that were negatively affected by the shutdown include: member reimbursement for time lost, locker revenue lost, birthday party rentals lost, private rentals lost and resale goods not sold.
A savings on staff salaries were realized to the tune of $11,000.