(Estherville)– The Estherville City Council Monday evening held a public hearing on a budget amendment. One of those is to cover a shortfall in revenue from the city’s outdoor pool. This past summer marked the first year of operation for the new pool. City Administrator Penny Clayton told the council revenue came in under projections largely due to colder than usual weather in August…
“So August was particularly cool this year, which is not the norm, and so, you know, there’s some hope that a better August will produce better numbers, especially with concessions. We need kids spending money at the concession stand. We haven’t discussed with Park and Rec an increase in rates for next year. We have sold some passes here prior to Christmas, so we’re selling those at the ’22 year’s rate. We’ll probably at least have a conversation about that as we move forward here, but I don’t know what their appetite is for raising those or not.”
There was also discussion about some $587,000 in the Parks and Recreation Revolving Fund. Clayton says most of that is earmarked for future trails projects…
“So we’re working on, A, doing some additional trails stuff locally, but that also is long term. We’d like to make that connection to the Dickinson county trail. We’re working on a coordinated project between Estherville, Emmet county, and the Dickinson County Trails System has already said that they’ll meet us at the county line when we get there. So, yeah, we are saving money. And those are, this money that’s been set aside over the years to be able to do some of these things.”
Clayton says some funds have also been set aside for some other future parks and rec projects that could include some improvements at the campground and a new shelter house.
