What’s a pool worth to a suburban community?
It’s a question Fox Point officials are grappling with as they consider whether to replace the village’s popular swimming spot – the only municipal outdoor pool on the near North Shore – a project that could cost as much as $7 million, depending on the extent of the work. Officials in several other communities say such significant investment is worth it – that their municipal pools are a draw for residents and visitors alike, even if they don’t break even year to year.
Fox Point closed its 55-year-old pool on June 13, just as summer was heating up, citing “irreparable mechanical problems” with its plumbing. An internal report “clearly shows that the pool is beyond repairs,” Village Trustee Jennie Stoltz says. The pool brought in just under $100,000 in revenue in 2022, including 311 memberships; expenses, including debt service, totaled $205,000.
Many Fox Point residents have rallied around the pool, with red- and blue-lettered signs of support sprouting in yards across the village.
The pool provides value “well beyond the costs,” resident Miriam Fleming said at a hearing in July, noting the growing number of young families moving to Fox Point.
Said Staci Peters: “The pool is the No. 1 reason we came here. But the board has not made the pool a priority, and that shows. I’m asking the board to listen to the community. It is a priority for us.”
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A few residents, however, argued that the pool was too expensive. “Why don’t other North Shore communities have a pool?” asked Larry Booth. (Mequon has a public pool nine miles northwest of Fox Point’s pool.) “The pool costs us more than $100,000 a year. It’s irresponsible to put this on the backs of Fox Point taxpayers.”
Officials in other suburbs with pools told Milwaukee Magazine they invest in the facilities to build community and for public health and safety reasons.
Hartford, for example, opened its Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in 2016. With a zero-depth area, water play apparatuses, two diving boards, two waterslides and an Olympic-size swim area for competitive racing, it’s “a regional attraction,” says Steve Volkert, the Hartford city administrator. “It’s a rare facility for this area to have a great outdoor public pool.” The pool’s revenue over the last couple of years has covered all of its operating expenses, he adds.
A 2017 study of Fox Point’s pool identified the pool in Elm Grove, opened in 1961 and last renovated in 1988, as the local facility and community most relevant to its own situation. Elm Grove officials, like their North Shore counterparts, are now mulling whether to commit to a major pool expense – a relining within five years, says Village Manager David De Angelis.
In Fox Point, a citizens committee may try to raise private funds for a new pool, perhaps as much as 50% of the cost. And a referendum “is not off the table,” Stoltz says. She hopes that, “People are motivated to possibly open their pocketbooks for a new pool.”
