City of Metropolis Parks & Recreation Committee met March 9.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
ROLL CALL:
Michele Longworth Present
Jeremy Holley Present
Chuck Short Present
Al Wagner Absent
Moved by Alderman Chuck Short and second by Alderman Jeremy Holley to approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 1-29-2026 as presented.
MOTION CARRIED:
Michele Longworth Yea
Jeremy Holley Yea
Chuck Short Yea
Al Wagner Absent
Mayor Jeffords wanted to discuss several policies in place at the city pool that need changing before opening day. The pool has had a lot of problems over the years because we import a lot of our problems from other cities due to the low entry fee. Our current entry fee is $1.50 per person, and the 8-week season pass is $25.00 without a cap on family members. After researching other surrounding public pool fees our pool fee is too low but do not want to punish any child whose family may not have the extra money.
Paducah’s Noble Park public pool is $3.00 for ages 3 and under, $6.00 for ages 4 and up and $7.00 for adults. Their season pass is $65.00; a family of 4 season pass is $200.00 plus $45.00 per additional person.
Dixon Springs State Park public pool is $7.00 for 13 and under and $8.00 for 14 and over.
During discussion Alderman Holley suggested to make the entry fee $5.00 which would help cover daily expenses accrued. All agreed with the fee and reasoning but going from $1.50 to $5.00 was a concern. The Mayor suggested we started at $3.00 then $5.00 the following year.
A decision needs to be made whether we hire concession stand employees as they have done in recent years or continue to do as it has been done in the past; when the lifeguards rotate out, they work the concession stand. We had to many employees working at the pool.
We are having a lot of people from Paducah dropping off their kids and which leaves them unsupervised and need to handle this issue. The use of the pool is a privilege and that can be taken away. The pool is not there to make money, but we cannot continue to lose money. The pool is good for our community both in Metropolis and Massac County and our pool and family passes need to be sold to residents of Massac County only. Chief Masse stated the majority of the calls last season were the kids under the age of 13 who were there by themselves. He added the officers responded at least a dozen times last year. The department, through its SAFETY fund, can assist Massac County children who are seen to have a need for pool passes.
The biggest problem is unaccompanied minors. The current rule is children 10 and above can go to the pool without an adult present. The mayor questioned “What’s our liability if we have to ask one of those children to leave and gets hurt?” They are there without adult supervision and it turns our lifeguards into babysitters instead of lifeguards. Mayor Jeffords shared what he had researched on unaccompanied minors and all of it states about the same. All children under the age of 18 have to have an adult. Children 13-17, as long as the parents sign a waiver can be unsupervised. Anybody under the age of 13 has to have an adult present. Discussion from the committee varied on what age to have kids accompanied and unaccompanied by adults. They did agree that there are responsible teenagers that babysit by the age of 14 or 15 which questions the under the age of 18 rule. One question asked was can an older sibling be the adult supervision for their younger siblings. The concern with that issue is the age of the older sibling and as long as the older sibling doesn’t leave the pool.
Hours of operation was the last discussion. Last year the pool was open until 7 p.m. and didn’t show an increase in public use, there were no more than 10 kids there after 5 p.m. We paid up to eight lifeguards $15.00 an hour plus families missed out on having pool parties during the week. All agreed to go back to 12-5 Monday-Friday and 1-5 on Sunday’s.
The pool offers swim lessons at $25.00 a session that meets biweekly for one month. We also have water aerobics but will need to find an instructor this year.
The mayor noted all these are policy changes that don’t require a council vote but wanted input of the Parks and Recreation committee and the council. Alderman Holley requested to prepare something for the next meeting for all the changes required. Alderman Holley asked we have another committee meeting to finalize the new changes.
Moved by Alderman Jeremy Holley and Second by Alderwoman Michele Longworth to adjourn. Time 6:53
MOTION CARRIED:
Michele Longworth Yea
Jeremy Holley Yea
Chuck Short Yea
Al Wagner Yea
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