City leaders on Monday explored ideas for making Pearland’s COVID-battered recreation and natatorium facility more economically sustainable.
Facing a long list of needed maintenance and replacements for the now 12-year-old facility, Pearland City Council on July 25 posed the question: How much would user fees have to increase for the facility to break even?
The question was answered Monday evening by a presentation from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. To reach 100% cost recovery, rental, day pass and membership fees would have to increase by 32% — and that is in the unlikely event that many of those memberships wouldn’t canceled, the report states.
But, as City Manager Clay Pearson pointed out in July, “it would be retrofitting how that was presented and promised to the people when they voted for that back in 2007.”
Pearland voters in May 2007 did pass the $21.6 bond referendum to fund construction, and the state-of-the-art complex opened to much fanfare in 2010. Memberships were sold and grew, and in the four years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic’s arrival, the facility’s cost recovery averaged 90% — far surpassing the 75% goal set in 2012.
Then came 2020. Memberships, which averaged about 5,000 before the pandemic, fell below 2,900 and are now at about 3,900. Combined with skyrocketing energy costs, the cost recovery for 2021 plummeted to 37%, and for this year is expected to be 54%.
Monthly fees remain at around $35 for Pearland residents, lower than the YMCA and several nearby gyms, according to Monday’s report. Opposed to increasing rates, parks staff said they are actively working to rebuild memberships through discounts and promotions.
Parks and Recreation Board Chairman Dennis Jackson on Monday said the board is also against raising fees. Compared to the city’s overall spend, the estimated $500,000 in annual operating cost for the city is a small price, he said, for a multi-use asset that many communities don’t have.
“I understand the desire to squeeze every bit of revenue out of the facility, but (increasing fees) would come at another cost,” Jackson told the council Monday. “People want to use the Rec Center. They want to swim in our natatorium. But inflation may cause many to believe they can do without that membership or day pass. The old saying, ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,’ definitely applies here.”
Council members on Monday said they were open to ideas to make the facility more economically sustainable.
“I worry that we are burdening our city for additional repairs and costs,” Mayor Kevin Cole said, referring to upcoming costs for replacement and repair. “I don’t have a hard time with 75 percent (cost recovery), but when we have $3 million that has to come out in one chunk, that’s an undue burden.”
Other options discussed included cutting membership fees vs. raising them.
“We’re coming out of COVID and we’re now hit with inflation,” Cole said. “It would be interesting to see if you cut 10% in memberships, would (recovery) happen faster.”
Monday’s workshop was discussion only and no action was taken.
A collaboration among the Pearland Economic Development Corp., the city and the Pearland school district, the natatorium and recreation center was built on more than seven acres donated by PISD.
