Aquatics
Pools, swim lessons and aquatic facility programming.
The timeline
- July 16, 2026The work session gets a date; the Young Park vote stays in September
Four members met with no public participation and no vote on Young Park. Staff proposed limiting the August 20 regular meeting to the chair election and holding the promised Young Park work session immediately afterward, with the decision left on September 17. The board also learned the city's park maps are frozen pending web-accessibility rules.
- August 21, 2025New impact fees, four new playgrounds, and a $192 million question headed to Council
A four-member board heard that the city's park impact fees were rewritten by square footage and took effect July 7, falling 22% for the smallest units and rising 42% for larger homes. Staff reported four playgrounds replaced in the last fiscal year and an East Mesa Pool that lost five weeks of the season to two pipe breaks. The director previewed a City Council work session on bonding against a voter-approved GRT increase totaling $192 million.
- April 17, 2025Half the city's playgrounds are past their lifespan — and Council has not agreed to fund the fix
Director Steven Bingham told a four-member board the city has 64 playgrounds, 32 of them 20 years or older against a typical life expectancy of 18 to 22 years, and that the recommendation is to replace five per year rather than bond for all 32 at once. Three of this year's five are being installed at East Mesa, Pioneer and Vlachakis; Apodaca and Young Park are in design. City Council has yet to agree to fund and continue that replacement.
- September 19, 2024Dog park rules get teeth after attacks at Hermosa — and a 70% veto clause
Staff brought the board a rewritten set of dog park rules, prompted by what the record calls a lot of dog attacks at Hermosa Park, and said that if 70% or more of the community is against them Parks and Rec would return to the drawing board. The board took no action items, and no one spoke at public participation.
- August 15, 2024A summer counted: 70,000 pool visits, 19,000 meals, and no action items
Six of seven board members heard summer program numbers from three staff presenters and a rundown of parks under construction. The agenda carried no action items, and no member of the public spoke at public participation.
- May 16, 2024"The response was not helpful" — a neighborhood asks what the Pioneer Women's Park gazebo costs
George Pearson, president of the Alameda Depot Neighborhood Association, told the board his association e-mailed city staff for the status of the gazebo project in Pioneer Women's Park and got an answer only after their meeting, with no specifics beyond construction starting in a month or two. He asked for the budget, the bidding schedule and estimated construction dates. No action items were on the agenda, and neither staff nor board members made any comments at the end.
- April 18, 2024Park rangers, $2.55 million for two parks, and half the playgrounds over 20 years old
Director Steven Bingham laid out a budget request built on four priorities, including bringing back park rangers as Police Aides to monitor the skate park and higher-crime areas. Staff also presented the near-final Grindline design for the new skate park at the East Mesa Sports Complex and a ten-year wayfinding signage plan that will do ten parks at a time.
- February 15, 2024Four months without an activity pool, and 20-30 parks without names
The board heard that the Regional Aquatic Center's activity pool had been down since October 8 waiting on a custom-made heat exchange coil that arrived the day before the meeting. Staff also opened a multi-month effort to give official names to parks that have none, most of them in District 5.
- November 16, 2023Two vacant seats, one subcommittee paused, and December cancelled
With Districts 1 and 5 vacant and District 3 absent, the board voted to delay the community outreach subcommittee's report until it has a full board, cancelled the December meeting for want of action items, and tabled the dog park rules to January 18, 2024. The sports field usage committee created in October has not met yet.
- October 19, 2023A subcommittee on who gets the fields — and a new chair
The board voted to form a subcommittee to analyze how the City uses its sports fields for youth, and named Board Member Coppedge to chair it, after he raised locked gates, contention between the school district and the Parks Department, and unanswered questions about who owns, rents and pays for the fields. The same meeting elected Fred Raish Chair and Laura Haas Vice-Chair as Cassie McClure ended six years of service.
- August 17, 2023Dirt bikes on the non-motorized trails, and no money to enforce anything
Vice-Chair Engle reported a dirt motorcycle riding from Jason Jiron Park up the berm and onto trails that are supposed to be non-motorized. Staff listed signage, volunteers, barriers and education as the available approaches and said there are no significant funds for enforcement, that the wayfinding plan that would supply the rule signage has no funding to implement, and that bollards do not stop motorcycles. Staff agreed to bring an education plan to next month's meeting.
- July 20, 2023A $27.5 million Parks budget, five new full-time positions, and no public comment
Staff presented the FY24 Parks and Recreation budget: $19,442,397 in the General Fund and $27,464,154 in total once special revenue, legislative funding, grants and capital projects are added. The board also heard a 4th of July recap estimating 7,000 people at the parade and 20,000 on the NMSU campus, and was told a Parks and Recreation director has been recommended from outside the City.
- June 16, 2023A $845,000 skate park redesign, a wayfinding plan with no money to build it
The board heard a near-final skate park design funded by an $845,000 state appropriation and a completed park and trail wayfinding plan whose grant is nearly spent, with no funding identified for the system it designs. Staff also walked the 2018 and 2022 GO bond programs, including a $6.9 million East Mesa sports complex continuation.
- April 20, 2023A fee schedule passes by acclamation with its language still to be written
The board approved the 2023-2024 Fees and Charges and Facility Use Policy "with language added regarding bathroom use and field rental process" — language that did not yet exist when the vote was taken. A motion to table the item to May died, and the reason given on the record was that the policy is already in the queue for City Council in May. Public Participation: "There was none."
- March 16, 2023A finished dog park nobody can open, and a maintenance bill nobody budgeted
Two members of the public pressed the board on the Rinconada dog park, built but padlocked because it cannot be accepted separately from the Animal Services Center. Staff walked through an FY24 budget request that includes three new positions and over $750,000 in vehicles and equipment, and a board member asked why new facilities keep coming online without a maintenance component. The parks deputy director answered with the count: 50 full-time staff for roughly 148 park areas, 60 playgrounds, 40 miles of trails and 33 ballfields.
- February 16, 2023The recording failed, so the minutes were written from memory — and a commenter asked for verbatim minutes
The board's own record opens with a note that the transcriptionist's file of the meeting did not process, so the minutes were summarized from memory and the times approximated. In the same meeting Gregory Shervanick recommended that meeting minutes be verbatim. Six discussion items — trails, the hiking program, the outreach survey, the 50-meter pool, skate park renovations and Apodaca Park — are each recorded in a single paragraph.
- November 17, 2022A light pole falls at Harty, and the board names a course "The Big Enchilada"
Staff reported that a 30-year-old light pole delaminated and fell during a softball tournament at Harty Ballfields, missing an umpire and closing the facility pending testing of the remaining 17 poles. The board voted to recommend "The Big Enchilada" as the name of the city's new disc golf course and cancelled its December meeting. Staff outlined a proposed tree ordinance and the roughly $7 million Parks received from the 2022 GO Bond.
- September 15, 2022New pool, new prices, and the end of Frenger — the board sets rates for a 50-meter pool that will not pay for itself
The board approved fees and operating hours for the Natatorium, the city's new 50-meter pool opening early January 2023, and accepted staff's recommendation to close Frenger pool when it does. Staff presented El Paso's numbers as the benchmark: $70,000 in revenue against operations over a million. The naming of a new disc golf course was tabled to October.
- August 16, 2022The board kills the Veterans Park renaming on purpose — tabled indefinitely so no precedent attaches
The Veterans Advisory Board's vice-chair asked for one more delay, then said the group is not so much seeking a name change as a change in the park's usage. The board tabled the item indefinitely, with a member stating on the record that a vote would set a precedent against any future renaming. Staff separately disclosed that the Assistant City Manager had stopped permitting Veterans Memorial Park as of August 12.
- June 16, 2022The park where the playground is already scheduled to disappear
The Veterans Advisory Board asked this board to recommend that Veterans Memorial Park be designated a special use park and renamed "Veterans Memorial." Board members learned during the discussion that the adopted master plan already removes the playground, and tabled the item to July 21, asking to see the master plan and the LCPD vandalism reports first. Staff then presented a $28,040,752 FY23 budget.
- May 26, 2022"Next week he will file a discrimination thing with the City"
A former board member told the board that disabled veterans cannot use the Apodaca pickleball courts because there is no restroom and an 8.1% grade, that he would file a discrimination complaint the following week, and that the city wastes roughly a third of its GO Bond money by issuing RFPs instead of bidding work. The board then approved a $8,000 crosswalk-art project whose preparations had already begun and whose press release had already gone out.
- April 21, 2022Cricket players, dog walkers and a shooting club fill the room
A three-member board with four vacant seats took eight public speakers, then approved the 2021/2022 fees and facility use policy, master plans for Branigan, Gomez and Frenger parks, and the final design for the Pioneer Women's Park gazebo. Staff confirmed Frenger Pool is proposed for removal and would not pass inspection if the new 50-meter pool were online.
- January 20, 2022Four members, no public, and 74 pages of attachments
The board met at City Hall with four of seven seats filled and approved the minutes of July 15, 2021 — the meeting before it. Staff briefed it on the Go Bond program, a 50-meter competition pool at 15% complete, a special-projects spreadsheet, and a fees-and-charges red line the board will take public input on next month.
- July 15, 2021"It sounds like this meeting is in violation" — a board re-elects its chair twice and questions its own legality
The board elected Cassie McClure chair, recorded the motion as carried unanimously, then recorded that the same motion had died for lack of a second and voted it again. Staff reported the Young Park pond lost more fish on June 28 and that replacement aerators arrived the day of the meeting, costing about $6,600. A board member said the meeting itself appeared to be in violation of the in-person requirement that returned when the state's emergency orders ceased on July 1.
- April 15, 2021The board un-approves its own minutes, then hears Young Park is losing water and a pavilion
Held via Zoom webinar. The board moved to retract its previously approved February 18 minutes for corrections, corrected them, and approved them again. A member of the public objected that Young Park's pond is being refilled twice a week with approximately 27,000 gallons and that the park's community pavilion was demolished and is being replaced with a smaller structure. Staff attributed the pond incident to staff error and said Public Works would answer the pavilion questions at the next meeting.
- March 18, 2021Fifty staff to fifty-seven, and acres added every year: the maintenance math
Held via Zoom webinar. Staff presented the maintenance impact of adding a new facility, reporting parks staffing has gone from 50 to 57 since 2008 while eight positions lost in the recession were never recovered. A second presentation covered splash pad water systems, including that a splash pad costs about $550,000 and that the city's one flow-through pad uses over 2.5 million gallons a year. Capital projects presented total just over $24 million.
- February 18, 2021GO Bond program at 26% on time, and the District 5 park gets a number: $675,000
Held via Zoom webinar. Public Works reported the GO Bond park program is 26% on time and 32% on cash, with Apodaca courts due in May and demolition started at Young Park. Staff said the new District 5 park has a funding source of approximately $675,000 from the Philippou settlement. Board members reported that three City Councilors each described the resolution as a one-off.
- January 21, 2021A park by resolution: the board asks what happens when Council skips it
Held via Zoom webinar. A resident objected that a City Council resolution to buy land and build a park in District 5 bypassed the board's normal process, and the board spent most of the meeting on what that precedent would cost. Staff said park impact fees are the only backup funding source and cannot be used for maintenance at all. No action items were on the agenda.
- November 19, 2020A resident asks where $2.2 million went, and the board gets the whole budget — an $18 million department with closed facilities
Meeting by Zoom with all Parks & Recreation facilities closed under the Public Health Order, the board heard a resident question the accounting on the Nevada Cool Corridor and got the Public Works director's answer on the record. Staff then walked the board through the entire FY21 budget — $11 million in general fund, a little over $18 million in total. The board approved two youth-painted murals and cancelled its own December meeting.
- August 20, 2020Two dozen players write in against the 45-minute court rule — and the board takes no action
The board met on Zoom with no action items on its agenda while a court reservation policy taking effect four days later drew about two dozen emailed public comments, printed in full across pages 11 to 49 of this document. The Chair read the emails aloud; the board took no vote on the policy, and the Director committed to answering every writer individually within 48 hours.
- August 20, 2020The same meeting, filed without the emails: ten pages that say the Chair read them
This is the city's ten-page filing of the August 20, 2020 board meeting — the minutes with no attachments. It records that the Chair read all emails submitted about the pickle ball and tennis scheduling change, that the board took no action on the policy, and that the Director committed to answering every writer within 48 hours. The emails themselves are in the other filing of the same meeting.
- July 16, 2020A new chair, a new splash pad, and a budget the board put off
Meeting by Zoom, the board elected Cassie McClure chair and Stan Engle vice-chair, then approved the Unidad Park playground rehabilitation and splash pad to go forward to City Council. Its first act of the night was to table the FY21 budget presentation to August 20. Staff said the splash pad will discharge to the sewer rather than recirculate, with conversion planned for the future, and could not say what it costs to run.
- June 18, 2020Two GO Bond plans go forward on Zoom, and a resident asks who is paying for the entry road
Meeting by Zoom for the first regular session since February, the board accepted the East Mesa Recreation Complex master plan presentation to move to City Council and approved the Parks & Sports Courts improvements. Three emailed public comments were read verbatim, one of them alleging that entry road funding had been taken "directly from the Go Bond funding as feared" — which the Interim Public Works Director denied on the record. A power outage cost one member his vote.
- January 16, 2020The community pool gets its final concept — three of five public comments answered
A four-member board accepted the final concept design for the new community pool, with ASA Architects reporting that three of the five comments from the August 2019 public input meetings fit inside the project budget and two did not. The board also approved a revised fees and facility-use policy and a Youth Board logo, and tabled its own work session and meeting-location questions to February 20.