The Last Stand
Chat with Pat Carney of Old Town Hot Springs
March 23, 2007
Pat Carney si the executive director of the Steamboat Springs Health and Recreation Association and the Old Town Hot Springs at Third Street and Lincoln Ave. She will be available to chat at 2 p.m. Friday.
sstanford: Good afternoon, Pat. Thanks for joining us. Are you ready to go?
Pat Carney: yes
sstanford: While the Steamboat Springs Health and Recreation Association has held several public meetings and also mailed its members a description of the proposed renovations to Old Town Hot Springs, many people are still unclear as to what the $3.5 million project includes. Can you briefly describe the renovation plans?
Pat Carney: The plans include demolition of the current cardio wing of the building and putting 2 new waterslides and a waterslide pool in that area. The old slide and stairs will be demolished and the hillside revegetated. The area where the big hot pool, slide pool, and small spa is will be demolished and new hot pools built - one large (approx. 3000 sq.ft.) irregularly shaped pool and two smaller spas with jets will replace them. There will be rockwork and landscaping to make the area appear more natural. The decks by the slide pool will be replaced with one large one which will sit on the new mechanical room that will be buried in the hill. The stairs in the lobby will be moved to where the downstairs sauna is, opening up the lobby to the hot pool area with more glass and seating.
sstanford: Planning Commission members Dick Curtis and Steve Lewis strongly criticized the waterslides Thursday night, citing their "visual impact" from Lincoln Avenue. What is the benefit of the new alignment for the slides, and what is your response to Curtis and Lewis?
Pat Carney: The benefit is having people enter the slide close to the building which will make them much more comfortable in the winter, plus being better for safety as far as having the stairs closer to the building, better monitoring, etc. The placement also allows us much more room for the hot pools by taking the slide out of that area. I have several responses to them - one is that the slide is not nearly as visible on Lincoln Ave. as the scheme they were looking at which made it look like it was sitting on Lincoln Ave.; another is that we are a recreation center, similar to the ski area and Howelsen Hill - we want people to know we have recreation here so the fact that you can see the slides in a tasteful manner, along with steam and water, is a good thing in our view. We think it creates excitement and vitality for the downtown area as people drive in - having an interesting, vibrant downtown is a goal which we support and feel that we are an important asset to the downtown.
sstanford: Recreation facilities are a hot topic in Steamboat, with many options currently on the table. Ideally, how would you like to see recreation facilities expanded locally?
Pat Carney: I would like the City to purchase the Post Office Property to be used for some of the recreation needs, which would allow us to let the City use our upper parking lot to build an indoor pool that we would operate at a much reduced subsidy than a pool at a separate location. I think having intensified recreation uses at this convenient downtown location is a good thing, close to the schools, trails, bus, etc. I also believe that meeting some needs at Howelsen Hill would be a good thing because of everything that already goes on over there, and also it's proximity to Health & Rec. I look forward to working with the City and the consultants they have hired to find out if these ideas are feasible and fit in with community needs.
sstanford: Would the SSHRA ever consider managing or operating other city recreational facilities on a contract basis?
Pat Carney: We haven't ruled anything out as far as partnership opportunities with the City. It would depend on many unknowns but we are happy to talk with the City about it.
sstanford: The City Council has discussed acquiring the Post Office site next door to the Hot Springs. How might the SSHRA utilize this space?
Pat Carney: We would only be interested in using that property for another ingress and egress for cars. It depends on the City's ideas but we could see teen and youth programming in that space, possibly a single gymnasium, operated by Parks & Rec., while an indoor pool building could be built on our property operated by Health & Rec. and joined to our existing building. The pool could open out to the hot pools in the summer, share lobby space, lockerrooms, etc. - making it an economical solution. The facilities could possibly be joined with a bridge over the creek.We would share parking with a possible parking garage at our existing tennis courts.
sstanford: We understand that compensating members for inconveniences caused by the construction is a difficult subject, due to financial concerns and your variety of membership rates, but can you talk about what SSHRA can do for its members, and what compensation might be offered?
Pat Carney: It is a difficult subject because we do have such a variety of kinds of membership and lengths of membership so I don't want to confuse people by going into a lot of detail. We are offering most annual members a 2 month extension and 6 month members a one month extension on their memberships. We are reducing the one month memberships for the duration of the construction. We will also offer some discounts on daily admissions. For specific information people can call the front desk. We just want people to bear with us during this and look forward to the beautiful facility we will have in December.
sstanford: Construction of the waterslide tower would require demolition of an upstairs area that currently houses cardiovascular equipment. Where will the cardio equipment be moved during construction?
Pat Carney: It will go into different places in the existing fitness center. The room where we have spin classes will be available because spin ends April 1st. We will rearrange some of the other equipment, store some of the little used pieces and sell some of the equipment that needs to be "retired". The summer is a very lightly used time in the fitness center so we think it will work fine. By September when we get busier we will have additional space in the new slide tower and from moving the lobby stairs. We are hopeful that by the end of 2007 the recreation center decisions will have been made and we can start working on getting our building expansion going. We realize that some additional building space is needed no matter what happens and are planning for that.
sstanford: that concludes our chat. Thanks for your time, Pat.
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