Budget cuts followup: Wading pool schedule; Parks maintenance

(2008 WSB photo of Delridge wading pool)
Two followups to this morning’s news about city budget cuts: First, the wading pool schedule is now available as a PDF on the Seattle Parks website. Here’s the document; the highlights –

Delridge: Thursday-Friday-Saturday noon-6:45 pm, starting June 26th
EC Hughes: Wednesday-Thursday-Friday noon-7 pm, starting June 30th
Hiawatha: Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday noon-6:45 pm, starting June 28th
Highland Park: Closed (awaiting conversion to spray park)
Lincoln Park: Every day 11 am-8 pm, starting June 26th
South Park: Sunday-Monday-Tuesday noon-7 pm, starting June 27th

That leaves eastern West Seattle with no 7-day-a-week pool, a situation that stirred some controversy two years ago (Delridge eventually got a seventh day). Also a note on the Parks budget cuts regarding maintenance — a little more insight comes from an internal memo that Acting Superintendent Christopher Williams sent to Parks employees:

We will hold three park maintenance positions vacant in each Park District for the last half of 2010. This will save about $0.3 million but will have a serious impact on our ability to maintain our parks to their current excellent standard. The Parks Division is also working on some ways to test different reduction strategies this summer to try to identify the ways that have the least impact on the public.

Again, from our earlier report, the full presentation given to councilmembers this morning can be seen here.

Michael June 14, 2010 (3:38 pm)

It wasn’t really much of a controversy back then, just an “activist” who was willing to take the low road on this particular issue, despite hard proof that all areas were suffering cutbacks.
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I wonder whether that extra spending then might not have cost us a pool day this year…

Forest June 14, 2010 (3:48 pm)

I think any parent who works during the week would prefer 3-day wading schedules that included a weekend day. Would it be that hard for Parks to change Hiawatha’s schedule from Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday to SUNDAY-Monday-Tuesday, and change the Hughes schedule from Wednesday-Thursday-Friday to Thursday-Friday-SATURDAY?

WSB June 14, 2010 (4:08 pm)

For the record, it was a controversy, and it wasn’t a case of someone even seeking publicity. We monitor most neighborhood mailing lists, including North Delridge, where this was brought up. I still have the e-mails. In West Seattle, only Hiawatha and Lincoln park wading pools were open on Sundays. Transportation in West Seattle generally runs north-south, not east-west, and those who take buses say it’s a two-bus hop to get from east to west in most cases. The heat wave in July that year called attention to the fact there was nowhere in eastern West Seattle open on Sundays. Regardless of whether it was intended that way, that meant the most prosperous areas of West Seattle – with the people most likely to be able to hop in their car and go to some other wading pool if “theirs” were closed – had 7-day service, and the not-so-prosperous areas of West Seattle did not (nor did South Park) – all the pools there were open 5 or 6 days a week. Residents sent their concerns to the Parks Department. I read about that on the mailing list and followed up for a news story. The residents continued following up, as did Ron Angeles of the DON’s Neighborhood Services Center, and a month after they first voiced their concerns, the city announced Delridge would be open Sundays for the remainder of the summer – only three or four extra days, ultimately. – TR

Mama o\\\\\\\' four June 14, 2010 (10:21 pm)

Last summer my baby boy was a newborn and I spent a wonderful summer by the wading pool watching my other kids splash around mostly every day… We will definitely make use of the days Hiawatha will be open as much as we can

side of blue cheese June 15, 2010 (7:43 am)

Sure wish Highland Park had its pool functional. My kids will nearly be too big for the spray park by the time it is completed. Not sure what the neighborhood kids are supposed to do in the meanwhile.

mph June 15, 2010 (12:31 pm)

I have to agree with Forest. It would be nice to have the Hiawatha Wading Pool open at least one day on the weekend.

Mags June 15, 2010 (1:30 pm)

I am guessing that the Parks looked at data regarding usage last year and selected the days of the week that corresponded with the highest usage. Lincoln Park has one of the highest usage rates in the city-that is why it is open 7 days a week (vs. Hiawatha, EC Hughes, etc). Bummer about those who feel slighted by the dates but maybe a chance to check out a different wading pool? Other option is to email Parks and let them know your frustrations so they can consider that for next year.

Personally I am super relieved they are opening at all since there was serious consideration to open only Lincoln Park in the W. Seattle area.

westseattledood June 15, 2010 (5:44 pm)

Yeah, this is disappointing for lots of folks. I just hope the weather doesn’t get extreme, but it seems unlikely right now, doesn’t it? ;)

Do Lincoln Park users come in from all over the city, I wonder? Maybe that’s part of it too. Looking at the pdf it seems the pools that will be open daily are the Big Parks – Greenlake, Volunteer, Magnuson, Lincoln, etc. Makes some kind of sense I guess, in these times.

I know we are being discouraged from using kiddie pools at home, but I think if the heat goes ballistic later, folks should not feel too badly about soaking the kiddies in the back yard. Especially those areas COMPLETELY without transit to the available pools. That’s just not a fair expectation.