I lied about returning to more normal topics.
That’s because today, I found out that Vienna Town Council already knew all the main points I’ve made in these past few posts, about a proposed municipal pool.
The 2014 Town Council.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to to repeat it.
George Santayana
Source: Article by Brian Trompeter, from 2014 insidenova.com
A decade ago, Vienna was getting ready for a $15M-ish expansion of its community center. (Roughly, I forget the exact total.)
At that time, Vienna Town Council turned down the idea of a pool at the Vienna Community Center, due to the cost.
And, hilariously enough, most of what I’ve done with these recent pool-oriented posts is re-discover what Town Council figured out for themselves a decade ago. Here’s the rest of the Brian Trompeter reporting of the 2014 pool discussion (emphasis mine):
Source: Op cit.
For that 2014 discussion, the then-Town Council was already aware of the three nearby REC Centers. And they noted that Vienna’s facility would be at an inefficient scale (higher cost per member) than the REC Centers, owing to economies of scale and the large size of the Fairfax County facilities. With the icing on the cake being the then-Mayor’s unwillingness to handcuff future Town Councils with the high debt load a municipal pool would entail.
Crikey. Turns out, all I’ve done is replicate the thinking of the 2014 Vienna Town Council.
The idea of a Vienna municipal pool came up a decade ago, with the expansion of the community center, and got shot down for huge debt load (Mayor), ample local supply/competition for this product (Polychrones), and insufficient scale for an efficient Vienna facility relative to County facilities (Kelleher).
In reading the materials for the 9/30/2024 Town Council work session (to the extent I cared to, and then some), I came across no discussion of the earlier decision, or the reasoning.
Anyway, I was unaware of the rationale for the 2014 “no”. I’m … surprised? unsurprised? … that it dovetails with what I’ve been pointing out, about the current proposal.
Starting with the three nearby Fairfax County REC Centers.
Not a sponsor.
Conclusion: It’s deja Vienna all over again.
How to put this? Unbeknownst to me, I’ve been watching a re-run …
… but maybe this time it’ll have a different ending?
Yeah, turns out, that’s pretty much the gist of the Vienna Town Council decision-making.
The only real point is that the 2014 Vienna Town Council shot down the last Vienna Pool proposal based on more-or-less exactly the problems I’ve pointed out with the current proposal.
I guess it’s on me to figure that out. And I was unaware of it, until Google showed me that ten-year old newspaper coverage.
I should subscribe.
It’s validating, really. To find that I’ve repeated, from scratch, what Town Council figured out ten years ago.
In part, it validates that I’ve just wasted a lot of time.
But it also validates that the same basic “business” problems with the 2024 proposal were highlighted front-and-center on the 2014 proposed community center pool.
And so, coming from a mixed government and business background, I hope you can see what drives me crazy about Town of Vienna decision-making. This entire discussion should have started with the 2014 Town Council decision, the rationale for that, and how this new proposal addresses the concerns raised back in 2014. Explain what is different now, or, at the minimum, dispute those prior objections.
Next up: The weird market for private pool memberships, starting with discussion of the table at the top of this post.
