OLD BUSINESS  7.

COMMITTEE MEMORANDUM

HISTORY:

On June 21, 2017, the Sting Swim Club reached out to Miami Beach, petitioning for sponsorship at a City pool facility.

At the June 28, 2017 Commission Meeting, Commissioner Kristen Rosen-Gonzalez made a dual referral to discuss this item at both the Neighborhood and Community Affairs Committee (“NCAC”) and the Finance and Citywide Projects Committee (“FCWPC”).

At the June 30, 2017 NCAC meeting, the item was deferred to July.

ANALYSIS:

The City of Miami Beach operates public pools at three different sites: Flamingo Park (8-lane lap pool), Scott Rakow Youth Center (6-lane x 25 yard pool) and Normandy Isle Park (4-lane lap pool).

While the City of Miami Beach has existing aquatic facilities that can support lap swimming, swim lessons and other aquatic programs, the pool at Scott Rakow Youth Center is the primary location for competitive swimming in the community.

Though the pool at the Scott Rakow Youth Center falls just short of meeting regulation size specifications, the local Seahawks swim team trains at this pool facility. Miami Beach High School’s swim team utilizes the pool at Flamingo Park from August through November. 

The City pools have high usage counts, especially during prime time (early morning and evenings). For reference, the number of AM and PM lap swimmers for the two larger pools are listed below:

Scott Rakow Youth Center Pool (6-lane pool)

• Mornings: Average # of lap swimmers 15-40 (all lanes used between the hours of 6:00 AM – 8:30 AM)

Flamingo Park Pool (8-lane pool)

• Mornings: Average # of lap swimmers 15-25 (all lanes used between the hours of 6:30 AM – 8:45 AM)

• Evenings: Average # of lap swimmers 25-40 PM (all lanes used between the hours of 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM)

The Sting Swim Club’s practice structure is interval based. Adults have two 1-hour and a half sessions in the morning and in the evening, Monday through Friday. The youth have five weekly 2-hour evening sessions, Monday through Friday.

Since the Scott Rakow pool also has a heavy load of afternoon youth programming, other swim teams/programs have always taken a backseat to our resident lap swimmers and high schools which have priority. If the City were to accommodate another swim team for training purposes, the following times could be made available to them without disrupting or displacing our current residents:

* There are additional staffing expenses to accommodate these extended hour options.

Based on the times pool facilities can offer additional programming, the City is unable to accommodate the Sting Swim Club without disrupting current operations.

Aside from scheduling, the City would also need to consider additional staffing expenses to accommodate extended hour options as well as any proposed salaries requested by the Sting Swim Club. The forecast for next year’s Parks and Recreation budget does not have availability to include additional enhancements.

CONCLUSION:
Committee direction on whether or not to sponsor the Sting Swim Club, and grant them use of a City of Miami Beach pool facility to conduct their trainings.