PLAYLAND POOL UPDATE: Committee Review Meeting TODAY

After Legislator Sheila Marcotte (Chair of the Budget & Appropriations Committee) stated that she would have a "meeting every week" on the issue of Playland Pool back in late JULY, the Westchester County BOL is having their FIRST MEETING SINCE THAT DAY to discuss the Pool issue again...THIS MORNING, 10am in White Plains.

Here's what you need to know:

*In late July, 2016 rather than make a decision on whether the Pool stays or goes by July 31, 2016 - an arbitrary date dictated to the BOL and set by Nick Singer of Standard Amusements - the BOL moved to defer any vote until Sept. 30th, because they felt there was too much information to review and they needed more time (and now have not had a single meeting about it since...)

*The issue at hand for the Board of Legislators to consider and vote on is a request submitted to the BOL by County Executive Rob Astorino in late June to approve a Bond Act for $2.7 Mil to DEMOLISH AND REMOVE THE POOL.

*When Astorino submitted the Bond request for money to REMOVE the Pool, he did not offer an alternative option for the Board of Legislators to consider in their deliberations, which was the amount of money it would take to RESTORE and KEEP the Pool. The BOL subsequently requested this information and in late July they received that other financial scenario, with the amount coming in at $9.5 Mil.

*The amount needed to fully restore and keep open the Playland Pool comes in at the same amount or below the money either already spent on or approved for restoring the County pools at Saxon Woods, Wilsons Woods, Tibbetts Park and Sprain Ridge ($9.5 Mil requested from Astorino and approved by the BOL just one year ago for the long-closed Sprain Ridge Pool).

*Astorino’s office claims the Playland Pool needs to be closed due to the expense of fixing it and lack of attendance. The Pool had over 27k visitors in 2015. (Numbers for 2016 not yet in).

*The claim of under-usage does not take into account that out of the four County Pools open and operational (Wilson’s Woods, Saxon Woods, Tibbetts & Playland) the Playland Pool is significantly smaller than the other entities, is the only one of the four that HAS NOT been fully restored (restoration at the other pools has brought an uptick in attendance), OR, more glaringly, the fact that the Playland Pool is only open five days a week (Weds-Sun) all summer while the other three operational pools are all open SEVEN DAYS A WEEK ALL SUMMER.

*When claiming it is too expensive to fix, Astorino’s office neglects to recognize or mention that all the other Pools received multi-million dollar restorations under the County aquatics master plan set forth a decade ago, and that less than a year ago he asked for and got the same amount of money to restore and RE-OPEN the pool at Sprain Ridge (which has been totally closed for 5-7 summers and had NO ATTENDANCE AT ALL that entire time).

*It’s clear that the only reason Astorino has for closing the Playland Pool is to satisfy Standard Amusements who do not want to run a public pool because they are a strictly for-profit entity with hedge fund investors they need to make happy, and public pools do not make a profit. Standard Amusements wants that space to insert a substantial revenue-generating entity of some sort; Astorino’s office has said that will be restaurants (plural), and the goal is to have year-round activity on that site, located just yards from residential homes. Standard Amusements has been awarded a contract to manage the Park on behalf of the County and has not yet taken over or participated in any way in any of the management aspects at Playland, nor will they any time before Nov. 2018 – if ever at all. The Park is still fully and completely owned/run/operated by Westchester County and will be through 2017 and the 2018 season also (should they ever even actually make it in – things are very sketchy regarding their finances).

*There are three committees reviewing this issue to prepare the entire BOL for a Sept. 30, 2016 vote. Those Committees are:

· Budget & Appropriations, Chair: Sheila Marcotte

· Infrastructure, Chair: MaryJane Shimsky

· Labor, Parks, Planning & Housing, Chair: David Gelfarb

*There are two sets of info the Committees need to discuss today and review. One set of info is for approval of money requested to REMOVE the Pool ($2.7). The other is to approve – I believe without any request from Astorino for this – money to RESTORE the Pool ($9.5)

*This morning the Committee members can do one of several things:

• Vote to approve money to remove the Pool and move it out of Committee this morning for a full vote on the floor by all 17 Legislators on Sept. 30th

• Vote to approve money to restore the Pool and move it out of Committee this morning for a full vote on the floor by all 17 Legislators on Sept. 30th

• Choose to further defer a decision to an even later date than Sept. 30th pending more substantial review and discussion

• Do absolutely nothing and let it all die in Committee, never getting either option to the floor for a 17-member BOL vote

• Possibly other options also

*The joint Committee meeting starts this morning at 10am in White Plains. These meetings are public and open to anyone to attend, however no member of the public is allowed to ask questions, speak or otherwise participate, you are only allowed to sit in the room and observe. Should you choose to attend you must bring a photo ID to get through security in the Lobby before proceeding to the 8th Floor. At the 8th Floor you need to sign in with the receptionist before proceeding to the meeting room to your right. Parking is available in the Galleria or in municipal lots near-by on Court Street. The County Office Building (Michaelian Bldg) is located at 149 Martine Ave on the corner of Martine Ave and Court Street (across from Macy’s at the Galleria), with the actual entrance door on Court Street.

*You can watch this meeting via live internet feed (or later the recorded video) via the www.westchesterlegislators.com site. Look under the “Meeting Management Web Portal” box on the right side of that page, click on it, and then it takes you to a listing of all the meetings and their agendas. Around 10am one of the Committees will have a “video” button pop up next to the “agenda” and “agenda packet” buttons. Look under today’s date for each of the three Committees until you see the video button.

Click here for the meeting agenda and info regarding the money requests for the Pool. If you click on "agenda packet" you will get full information with documents, you will have to scroll through them all.

http://westchestercountyny.iqm...

For continued up-to-date info on this issue and all Playland related issues, please "like" and follow the "Friends Of Playland" FaceBook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Frien...