The President's View

Each year, the pool board struggles with memberships, getting people to pay dues that pays for maintenance and the luxury of having lifeguards on duty so many hours each day.

Did you know that your membership equates to ownership? If something were to happen and we had to sell the property, for whatever reason, each member/owner would receive a share of the sale. I suggest that you don't think of the annual fees as dues but as maintenance fees. You probably pay more than $325 over the summer months for your utilities alone, let alone any other maintenance. Utilities are just a part of what the annual fees pays for; there's also insurance, salaries, pool supplies (i.e., chlorine, soda ash, filters, etc.).

As it is, we have 15 open memberships, that equates to $4,875 in maintenance fees that we are having to work around. I don't know if you've noticed, but we've had some major work done at the pool this summer - most recently, the parking lot was patched, sealed and restripped. Looks a lot better, don't you think? Some of the work isn't so obvious. Although, I think the men are glad to have hot water for showers again this season (had a leak at the end of the season last year that resulted in having to shut off the hot water to the men's room). We've had leaks in the sprinkler system that have ended up with excess water running off and going down the street. Every time you fix one leak, another shows up.

Our pool is aging and so are the facilities supporting it. I don't think any of us want to lose our pool due to lack of preventative maintenance. We can't do preventative maintenance without memberships. What can you do to help us get new members for next season? I would love to hear your ideas. Send me an email at dmsglass@hotmail.com and let me know your thoughts. I'll bring them to our next board meeting.

Kudos to our ad hoc property committee, Ken Buxton, Brad Jenkins and Jan Stephan for being actively involved in the maintenance of the grounds. I really appreciate how much they care about Northview Swim Club and the time they have put into the projects I've mentioned.