Be a wading-pool hero! City’s looking for sponsors this summer

| How to help | West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

(WSB photo of the Hiawatha wading pool)
Might be a stretch to think about wading pools on a wintry night, but the city announced today that it is looking for help long before summer gets here. Seattle Parks doesn’t have the money to add back any of the hours slashed last year, when only five pools around the city were open daily, 10 three days a week, and 7 never opened at all (3 more were closed last year but will reopen as spray parks this year, including the Highland Park wading-pool site). But if they can find sponsors/partners, they might be able to change that, and open more pools for more days. In West Seattle, only Lincoln Park was open 7 days a week last summer, so if the schedule remains the same, sponsorships could help Delridge, E.C. Hughes, and/or Hiawatha. Find details on Parks’ pool-sponsor proposals by going here.

Hollyplace February 25, 2011 (6:03 am)

I wish they would have a paypal type account where the everyday person could donate $10 or $20 to the pools.

Manolita February 25, 2011 (8:26 am)

True.

alkikmac February 25, 2011 (8:42 am)

I thought this sounded like a splendid idea for local businesses, since the wading pools are really popular (esp Lincoln Park), but then I started crunching numbers….

$650 for sponsoring one wading pool for one day? I’d like to see a breakdown of the math to justify $650 for one day…..

The $6600 plan makes the daily cost $550 (if my math is correct). It’s the same cost for the $8800 plan if summer is 8 weeks long.

So…Seattle Parks wants to profit $100 per daily sponsor? I’m thinking $550 is even too high to charge per day.

rdf February 25, 2011 (9:03 am)

It does sound like a lot of money. Some of it is water and chemical and then a trained person to watch (though how trained is questionable at some of these sites) I’d love to see a breakdown of costs. It would be really expensive for a business and they get little more than recognition on their web page. They should at least get a banner at the park or something. Seems like a lot of money with little return on a businesses investment. I wonder if it’s tax deductible?

alkikmac February 25, 2011 (11:42 am)

I used to walk Lincoln Park everyday for the past couple summers. The “trained” person is a high school student who spends her day listening to her ipod and reading a book. Not a problem, parents should be watching their kids, but we’re talking minimum wage for the employee. Water is not costing hundreds of dollars daily.

Come on Parks – be realistic!

Jordan February 25, 2011 (3:48 pm)

If you read the parks document:
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“Under this partnership, Parks would keep the wading pool open one additional day each week in the neighborhood from which the funds came, and Parks would select a second site that the contribution would fund as well.”
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That says to me that communities like WS that would fund extra days, would also be funding some other wading pool for an equal number of days in a community that chooses not to support their wading pool.

nighthawk February 26, 2011 (12:16 am)

I like the idea of a general paypal account that anyone can contribute too for this cause. Or maybe let people choose what part of the parks they want to contribute too, including the wading pools.

Pick a wading pool, or say general maintenance Lincoln park and help keep the bathrooms clean for a day.

seattlecris February 26, 2011 (12:19 pm)

ticks me off we can’t volunteer in the parks. The reason I always hear is insurance insurance insurance.. why can’t they ‘donate’ a policy to make it plausible? I’d like to see how much of this cost per day IS insurance. Remember the old volunteer lifeguards?

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