Attendance at Community Park Pool is ahead of last year’s pace, as better than 1,600 people a day on average are passing through the gates of the complex.
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Attendance at Community Park Pool is ahead of last year’s pace, as better than 1,600 people a day on average are passing through the gates of the complex.
”It’s a busy place,” said Princeton recreation director Ben Stentz on Monday, a day after the largest crowd of the season came to cool off: some 2,500 people on a stifling hot Sunday looking to beat the heat.
Mr. Stentz said the pool is an affordable, cool place to go in the summer. And the attendance figures bear that out.
In the 34 days the pool has been open this season, 56,000 people have used the facility, a total representing card holders, day users and those participating in a pool program like the “Bluefish” swim and dive team. That compares to 125,000 last year, when interest was high among people wanting to see the renovated pool complex.
That interest has carried over to 2013. Pool membership, at 5,240 members a year ago, is up to 5,329 members as of Monday, he said. By comparison, the pool had 3,600 members in 2011, the year before the renovations.
Mr. Stentz said membership is up across the board of all the categories, from families to seniors.
A year ago, the pool made more than $500,000 in revenue, Mr. Stentz said. To run the facility, the pool has a staff of 70 lifeguards, customer service and other employees. Payroll and operational expenses, for such things as chlorine, totaled around $337,000 last year.
One problem that officials thought would cause headaches was parking at the complex. The pool shares the same parking lot as the municipal building, home to a larger work force after employees at the former Borough Hall moved across town.
But Mr. Stentz said the problem is not as bad as he anticipated. Patrons are directed to overflow parking where they can leave their cars. Pool users can also use the free municipal bus service to get to the pool, another option to driving.