Lewiston-Clarkston Parks & Recreation Department last night agreed to accept management of the Orchards Swimming pool, now run by the Lewiston Orchards Irrigation District. The proposal was passed on to the Lewiston City Council to work out an agreement with the district.
The commission, which met at the Parks & Recreation Department headquarters, also discussed agreements pending between the City of Lewiston and Nez Perce County and between the Lewiston School District and the commission.
Under the terms of the swimming pool proposal, the irrigation district would retain ownership of the pool and would be responsible for major maintenance, but the city would take over management and operation. Receipts from the swimmers would go into the city’s general fund.
“The problem is money,” said Lewis H. Ottosen, 333 Stewart Drive, chairman of the commission.
The pool has lost about $7,700 during the last two years, it was revealed at the meeting. Whoever manages the pool may stand any deficit which the summer swimming facility creates.
“We’re now in the city,” said Donald Reeder, manager of the Irrigation District, “so the city should take the responsibility of running the pool. I don’t have time to manage the pool and the irrigation district too,” he said.
“We would hope that the loss would be reduced with the more efficient operation which the Parks & Recreation Department’s operation would bring,” said Gene Skow, district chairman.
Very few summer-only swimming pools operate in the black, including the pools now operated in Lewiston and Clarkston by the Parks & Recreation Department, the commission was told.
The city is also enmeshed in a financial problem, Steven W. Bly, director of the department told the irrigation district representatives.
“With a new city council and the unknown financial demands of the Orchards annexation, the city is not in a position to commit itself further until it knows what bills it will have to pay during the next year,” said Bly.
A budget session Saturday will put the city commission in a better position to tell how much it can invest in the pool according to Bryan B. Bundy, one of the new city councilmen.
The commission then passed the irrigation district’s proposal on for consideration by the city council with the recommendation that it be approved if an agreement can be worked out.
A discussion on the transferral of Hereth Park from the irrigation district to the city was postponed.
Park Discussed
The joint development of Airport Park was discussed briefly, with the contract going to the Nez Perce County Commission for consideration.
The agreement provides for the development of the park by the parks and recreation department on county land with matching funds from the Idaho State Parks Board, Bureau of Outdoor Recreation.
The proposed park is located southeast of the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport in the west Lewiston Orchards.
In discussing the proposed agreement between the Lewiston School District and the Parks & Recreation Department, Bly said that matching funds are available for certain cooperative practices between cities and school districts, but that he had been unable to formalize an unwritten agreement to cooperate between the district and the city.
He received no answer to several letters addressed to the district since August, he said. It was decided to take the issue directly to the school board.
A proposal to establish a municipal golf course near the airport was also heard.
This story was published in the Jan. 14, 1971, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
