Sioux Falls City Councilors have approved the fee structure for the proposed Westside Recreation Center, but several members said it was a “compromise” and they would closely monitor citizen reaction to the costs.
More: Sioux Falls hopes to purchase the Sanford Tea-Ellis Wellness Center. What the fee structure would look like:
The council approved the fees by a vote of 7 to 1. Only Council member Ryan Spellerberg voted against, but did not explain his reasons for doing so.
The full fee structure, which can be viewed on the city’s website, offers the opportunity to purchase daily, monthly and annual passes for children, adults, couples and families for the Westside Recreation Center. The council approved $9 million to purchase the center from Sanford earlier this year.
Reduced rates for each type of pass would cut the cost in half and would be available to children, seniors, or low-income residents who participate in SNAP or EBT programs, qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches or Medicaid, live in foster care, or are veterans.
There are no contractual obligations for the passes and there are no activation or cancellation fees; the costs do not increase for non-residents.
City documents presented to the council last week showed annual projections for the recreation center of $1,553,949 in revenue against $2,238,997 in expenses, resulting in a net loss of $685,048. Those projections were based on the assumption of 2,600 tickets sold.
More: Sioux Falls plans to purchase a Westside Wellness Center as part of a $77 million bond that the City Council will vote on
At the Aug. 7 council meeting, several council members, including Rich Merkouris and Jennifer Sigette, expressed concern that the reduced fees might leave out “hard-working middle-class families” who, as Sigette called them, face difficult decisions about things like entertainment spending.
Soehl stressed Tuesday night that there have been “hundreds of hours” of discussions between various city departments about these costs, and other city councilors said they would be interested in revisiting these fees later after some time has passed with the center.
Merkouris described the fee structure as a “compromise” that he was happy with. He added that he did not want to be a spoilsport, but did not believe that a revision of the fee structure would lead to a reduction in these fees.
