Sioux Falls Council approves fee structure for Westside Recreation Center

Sioux Falls City Councilors signed off on the fee structure for the proposed Westside Recreation Center, though several members said it had been a "compromise" and they wanted to keep a close eye on how residents responded to the costs.

More: Sioux Falls hopes to buy the Sanford Tea-Ellis Wellness Center. What the fee structure would be:

The fees were approved by the council 7-1, with only Councilor Ryan Spellerberg voting against it, though he didn't get into his reasons for doing so.

The full fee structure, which can be viewed on the city's website , provides the option for daily, monthly and annual passes for children, adults, couples and families at the Westside Recreation Center. The council approved $9 million to buy the center from Sanford earlier this year.

Reduced rates for each type of pass would cut the cost in half, and would be available for children, seniors or low-income residents who are enrolled in SNAP or EBT programs, who are eligible for free/reduced school lunch, Medicaid, are in foster care or are veterans.

There are no contracts or activation/cancellation fees for the passes, and the costs do not increase for non-residents.

City documents presented to the council last week showed annual projections for the recreation center of $1,553,949 in revenue versus $2,238,997 in expenses, for a $685,048 net loss. Those projections were based off an assumption of 2,600 passes sold.

More: Sioux Falls plans to buy westside wellness center as part of $77M bond facing council vote

At the council's Aug. 7 meeting, several councilors, including Rich Merkouris and Jennifer Sigette, said they were concerned that the reduced fees could be leaving out what Sigette called "hard-working, middle-class" families who were facing hard decisions on things like entertainment spending.

Soehl emphasized Tuesday night there had been "hundreds of hours" of discussions between various city departments on these costs, and other councilors said they were interested in taking a later look at these fees once some time with the center had passed.

Merkouris called the fee structure a "compromise" he was happy with. He added he didn't want to be a "Debbie Downer," but didn't believe any revisiting of the fee structure would result in a reduction of those fees.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls Council approves fee structure for Westside Recreation Center