The two town parks with pools that were most recently renovated by the Town of North Hempstead showed large jumps in membership when they reopened.
Manorhaven Pool in Port Washington, renovated between the 2010 and 2011 swim season, had 1,278 members in 2010, according to Town of North Hempstead numbers. The pool’s membership jumped to 4,443 in 2011 and a record 4,790 in 2012 – a 275% increase in memberships since the remodeling effort.
Tully Pool in New Hyde Park memberships in 2007 totaled 1,394 with memberships doubling to a record 2,793 in 2011 after the facility’s renovation was completed. In 2012, a new record was set with 2,844 memberships, representing a 104% increase memberships issued since the remodeling effort.
Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman thinks that phenomenon will be repeated if the Roslyn Country Club recreation facilities are resuscitated.
If you improve the facility, people will come. We’re not doing this blindly,” Kaiman said
The town board voted in June to purchase 7.2 acres of the Roslyn Country Club property for $2 million and issue a $7.5 million bond to pay for repairs to the pool and tennis courts on the property. Kaiman said the projected membership fees – $975-$1,125 per family and $860-$960 per couple – were calculated to cover the costs of the repairs.
Civic association members challenged Kaiman’s claim that membership fees would cover the club’s purchase and renovation, saying town taxpayers would end up stuck with the shortfall. The civic association submitted more than 4,000 signatures last week calling for a referendum on the project.
Kaiman said that improvements made to the town parks at Manorhaven, a $12 million pool renovation project, and Michael J. Tully Park, an $18 million reconstruction of an indoor pool, have produced a significant rebound in membership at both parks.
But membership fees for those town pools, at Manorhaven and Michael J. Tully Park, are significantly less than the town board is projecting for Roslyn Country Club.
At Manorhaven, annual membership fees are $280 per family and $230 per couple, while at Tully they are $522 per family and $450 per couple.
The town hopes to draw as many as 1,000 residents to sign up for access to the facilities.
“We’re not putting our residents at risk. Yet there’s this movement speaking misinformation and fear,” Kaiman said of the Roslyn Country Club acquisition. “The goal is to give people options.”
Total beach and pool expenses at Manorhaven were $821,880 in 2011, with combined debt service and principal costs of $924,942.76. At Tully, total expenses are projected at $1,646,894 in 2012, with debt service and principal costs of $979,956.91.
For needed improvements to the Roslyn Country Club property, the town has estimated principal and interest payments on a 15-year, $7 million bond at $596,000 per year and annual facility operation costs at $656,650 per year when it recently struck a verbal agreement with Manouchehr Malekan, the owner of the property. While construction costs are expected to be $6.8 million to refurbish the facility, Kaiman has said the board was opting for a $7.5 million bond, anticipating what he called “soft fees,” including architectural costs.
Critics of the town board’s plans for the Roslyn Heights property have suggested a park district would be the best option to revive the Roslyn Country Club.
The town’s two existing park districts, Clinton G. Martin Park in New Hyde Park with a current budget of $1,196,348 and Harbor Hills Park in Great Neck with a current budget of $309,246, are self-sustaining entities. Membership at both parks is limited to residents in the respective park districts who pay for the parks through both taxes and membership fees.
But Kaiman maintains that the Roslyn Heights property should be bought and upgraded for the sake of all town residents.
“The larger community benefits by having parks. We’re more of a regional municipality. On a regional basis, we invest our resources throughout the town to improve the quality of life,” Kaiman said.
Kaiman also acknowledged that with just 668 households in the area “it becomes difficult” to maintain a park district for the Roslyn Country Club.
“If I could figure out a way to create a district and yet allow everyone to use the pool, I would do it,” Kaiman said. “We’re a town. We should share.”
The Roslyn Country Club property is in the center of a 688-home development off Roslyn Road by the same name constructed by Levitt & Sons.
The issue to be addressed by the referendum that appears likely to be on the November ballot – and the primary cost tied to the $2 million purchase price of the Roslyn Heights property – is the $7 million or more the town would pay to repair the pool and tennis courts that have fallen into a decrepit state over several years of disuse since the facilities were closed.
The tennis courts will produce additional fees at Roslyn Country Club and Kaiman contends that the project could produce a profit rather than become a burden to town taxpayers as some critics have said.
“This is going to cost $1 in your taxes and you might actually make money,” Kaiman said.
If voters reject the proposed $7 million to be spent on repairing the Roslyn Country Club pool and tennis courts in the November referendum, future development of the property as a public space may become a moot point.
The town could still purchase the property for the $2 million it has agreed on with Malekan, who will retain ownership of the catering hall on the property. It could create a park district or simply retain the land as open space – a theme that Kaiman has reiterated in pursuing the idea of a town park.
But Malekan has said the acquisition deal would not proceed unless Roslyn Country Club residents drop their lawsuits against him. They sued him for violating their rights-of-way for access to the pool and tennis courts when he shuttered the facilities several years ago in a dispute over raising membership fees.
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