School District 55 is asking the City of Sweet Home for financial help.
In the first of two proposals, the district is asking the city to waive sprinkler charges for its fields. The district would use the money normally used to pay the bill to install automatic sprinklers.
In the second proposal, the district is asking the city to share operations and maintenance costs for the pool.
“In my mind, right now, a lot of times they’re (district fields) over watered,” Supt. Larry Horton said. Replacing the current hand lines with automatic sprinklers behind the high school and on the football field and baseball field would allow greater control over the amount of water applied to the fields.
Supt. Horton said he worked out a similar deal as superintendent at Oakridge with the City of Oakridge.
To install a sprinkler system in all the district’s fields would cost between $150,000 and $200,000. Summer watering expenses are running between $30,000 and $50,000.
Over four years, the waiver would cover the cost of the sprinkler system.
From the district’s perspective, watering could be done without using the hundreds of man hours currently required, Supt. Horton said. When the new system is in place, the district would use less water and water at night when evaporation rates are lower.
The new system could relieve pressure on the city’s water supply during peak hours, Supt. Horton suggested.
The city treats and produces water then moves it to reservoirs where it is stored until used, Public Works Director Mike Adams said. This makes it unlikely that it would reduce pressure on the system, though any reduction in the demand for water means the city would need to produce that much less water.
The cost of producing the water would need to be made up by other rate payers if the city granted the waiver, Adams said. The rate structure is designed to cover the actual cost of producing water.
“If we don’t have the revenue made up somewhere else, then we’re not covering operating costs,” Adams said.
It also includes a profit margin, called a rate of return, which is being set aside for constructing a new water treatment plant.
The waiver could be smaller over longer period of time, with parts of the fields converted to automatic watering each year, City Manager Craig Martin said. That would decrease the burden other rate payers would need to shoulder each year.
Such a proposal might be easier to sell to the public, Adams said.
From the public’s point of view, the district wouldn’t be watering during the daytime any more, and less water would be used overall, School Board member Scott Proctor said.
As a way to save money at his own private sector employer, Oremet Wah Chang, Mayor Tim McQueary said “this project would just leap off the page at us.”
“The public wants us to think differently and act differently,” Proctor said. “This is different.”
In the long run, the project would provide a savings to taxpayers, Proctor said. “You’re truly right on when you say it’s a win-win.”
As far as the pool, it will be closed next month for a three-month construction bond project, which will improve energy efficiency.
After that, the district is looking at closing the pool during the summer to help meet anticipate revenue shortfalls in upcoming years. The pool costs between $140,000 and $150,000 annually while generating between $30,000 and $40,000 in revenue.
Cutting the pool operation by 40 percent, about $40,000, would probably close it during the summer months, Supt. Horton said. The City Council had agreed to pay half of operation and maintenance costs if a new pool were constructed. He wanted to know if the city had the resources and were still willing to cover half the costs, which would keep the pool open during the summer.
It’s going to close if the district doesn’t find some other way to keep it open, Supt. Horton said. “We can’t keep just laying off teachers with the pool there empty 80 percent of the time.”
Pool user groups are trying to raise revenue to keep it open, Supt. Horton said, but that will probably amount to about $5,000, leaving the district to find $35,000 more from the pool in covering the shortfall.
Even if the new pool had been built, the city would probably be where the district is now looking over the budget and wondering “what do we do with our new pool,” Martin said. Considering a pool district might be a way to pay for the pool in the future.
Martin said he would look into the possibilities. Supt. Horton summed up the city’s position on the pool as “it may be possible but don’t count on it.”
The proposals were both part of Supt. Horton “trying to figure out where resources are available” to meet upward of $900,000 in a projected revenue shortfall next year.