The Manitowoc Family Aquatic Center will be closed for the 2020 season. In making the announcement today, Mayor Justin Nickels said “After considering a plethora of different ways to make it work, weighing the risks to public health and the financial realities: the Manitowoc Family Aquatic Center will be closed for the 2020 season.”
The Mayor admits, “According to experts, it is true that properly disinfected pool water can eliminate the COVID-19 virus. However, the Aquatic Center is so much more than a pool ” The public health risk comes from shared spaces and surfaces, concessions, and close gatherings of people for a long period of time.
Financially, Nickels says “We simply cannot afford to invest tax dollars in that amount of seasonal staff or that amount of cleaning for those other spaces. This is a facility that, by its original design, does not break even and is subsidized by the taxpayer annually. Given the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, we know tax revenues will be shrinking in years to come.”
It’s also anticipated that if open, attendance would decrease as a majority of Wisconsinites support “Safer At Home” and social distancing measures. All these variables led to several projections showing huge financial losses to the taxpayers thus it leads to what Mayor Nickels says was a “very difficult but necessary decision to close the Aquatic Center for the 2020 season.”
Meanwhile, Nickels says he plans to move up the construction timetable for “Phase Three” during the shutdown, “The Friends of the Manitowoc Family Aquatic Center have been diligent and successful fundraisers over the past few years to be financially able to move ahead on Phase 3 of the construction, adding a splash pad and whirlpool area.” Nickels has also directed the recreation department staff to develop a plan to make the facility “revenue neutral” in the 2021 budget.
The Mayor concludes “Trust me when I say that the Manitowoc Family Aquatic Center will be back in 2021 stronger and bigger than ever.”
