Users of G.H. Dawe Community Centre and Collicutt Centre will pay more for admission because they offer more amenities than Red Deer’s two other recreational facilities.
For the first time, the City of Red Deer will charge admission based on the number of features inside a recreational building.
City council passed the admission pricing framework on Monday, along with fee increases that will begin on Aug. 1 for all four recreational centres — G.H. Dawe, Collicutt, Recreation Centre and Michener Centre. Charges will rise three per cent for ice and field house rentals as of Sept. 1, followed by another eight per cent in September 2011. A review of the fees and charges will be done in March 2011, prior to any future admission increases.
Recreation, Parks and Culture manager Greg Scott said the city hasn’t issued significant price increases for seven years and since then, there’s been several changes including renovations to the G.H. Dawe, to re-open in August.
The city needs to recover costs and depending on customer use, hopes to get additional revenues coming in, Scott added.
“We’ve developed an admission formula . . . which increases the admission to participate at that facility based on the number of amenities it has,” Scott said.
“It really gives us a consistent and fair tool for now and for any new facilities.”
A facility with at least five basic amenities (25-metre pools, steam room) sets the standard for a base rate.
Michener and Recreation Centres are listed as base facilities.
To determine the adult admission or base rate, 95 cents is tied to each of the first five amenities. An additional 30 cents is added to the base price for each value-added amenity located at the G.H. Dawe and Collicutt Centres. These include the fitness track, soccer pitches, fitness studios and the wave pool.
The adult admission rate at the G.H. Dawe Centre is $4.50 but once it re-opens in August following expansion, it will move up to $5.75. The Michener and Recreation Centres’ adult rates are $4.50 but as of August 1, will increase to $5. The Collicutt’s adult admission rate will increase to $8 from 7.50.
Scott said people will still have the chance to go swimming for less money by going to the Recreation Centre versus the Collicutt.
Community Services director Colleen Jensen added it appears a number of people are using several areas of the Collicutt during a visit, so they are getting value for their dollar.
Mayor Morris Flewwelling and Councillors Lynne Mulder, Cindy Jefferies, Tara Veer and Lorna Watkinson-Zimmer supported the new pricing framework while Councillors Larry Pimm, Buck Buchanan, Gail Parks and Frank Wong voted against.
Pimm said he wondered about the justification of someone going to a centre to swim, but they are also paying for the other amenities as well.
“It makes it more expensive and on some families that’s a very difficult circumstance,” he said. “It leaves them standing on the sidelines. Mostly the kids suffer.”
Scott also said the city’s ice rental and field house prices were lower in comparison with other municipalities around the province.
In comparing the city’s ice rental fees regionally and provincially, the review found that Red Deer’s $119 adult hourly hockey rate was significantly lower than the $148 average.
Veer said supports consumer price index increases, but not bigger increases to “catch up” because she fears the city may overprice itself.
A monthly system-wide pass is recommended to take the place of the Collicutt Plus pass, but would still save money for those wishing to use amenities at more than one facility. A family would pay $140 for a system pass, while a pass for just the Collicutt Centre is $100.
This year’s municipal budget added dollars for its CARE program, which offers free or low cost opportunities for families. Recreation, Parks and Culture will now offer $200 per person instead of $150. Staff told council that the CARE program is well used and that last year, it ran out of funding partway through. The city plans to work with other agencies to see that families in need are pre-approved.
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com