South Tahoe looking to renovate rec center
The South Lake Tahoe Recreation Center’s men’s bathroom lacks privacy. Photos/Kathryn Reed
By Kathryn Reed
Tape on many weight room apparatuses, blocks at the swimming pool the public aren’t allowed to use, no private showers in the men’s room, two out of three showers off-limits in the women’s locker room.
This is the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Center.
It was built in 1975. Nearly 40 years later it is sorely in need of being overhauled, if not gutted and rebuilt from the ground up.
“It’s rundown and needs serious renovation,” Pete Fink, chairman of the city’s recreation commission, told the more than two dozen people at a Nov. 18 workshop.
Turning this into a green building is a goal so it is extremely energy efficient. Today the annual electric bill is about $170,000 for the building, including the pool.
Last year $37,000 had to be spent on fixing the roof.
“It seemed like it was raining more inside than out,” Fink said.
Many would like the pool to be upgraded.
An aspect of the recreation master plan being developed by the city and El Dorado County calls for renovating the center. Last week was the first opportunity for the public to tour the facility and offer input as to what they would like to see changed.
Faye-Marie Pekar, Grace Usui Meyer and Jenn Boyd finished their evening lap swimming before joining the group to offer their opinions.
They told Lake Tahoe News the locker rooms should to be upgraded, the starting blocks need to be accessible to anyone, there should be a professional timing system and the number of lanes expanded beyond six.
They and others voiced the need for a swim center like Carson Valley has where there are multiple pools that would accommodate divers, swimmers and those looking for therapy sessions.
Some would like a permanent roof to replace the bubble over the pool. Bleachers would be beneficial for spectators during competitions.
Both locker rooms are a bit repulsive. Even though a major overhaul of the rec center is likely, the city is going forward with fixing the rusting, corroding women’s showers.
In the men’s locker room the urinals go to the ground in an old-school fashion. A short wall separates the two toilets, but privacy is completely lacking.
The rec center has various rooms that are used for meetings and classes. One has mirrors for dance class, but the floor in it is not conducive to dancing. And the mirrors don’t make for a professional meeting center for the entities that rent it for that purpose.
An industrial kitchen is adjacent to the gym.
Lauren Thomaselli, parks manager, suggested putting in a concession window between the kitchen and gym so food could easily by sold. She would also like to see cooking classes.
Caterers in town who need a facility that meets the health department’s requirements often rent the kitchen.
Duct tape is common on weight room equipment.
The weight room equipment looks like something found in a bygone era.
“A lot of the equipment here I’ve been told was donated by clubs that went under and it looks like it,” Peter Evenhuis, who was touring the site, told Lake Tahoe News. His suggestion is to lease equipment in the future.
The city is looking for more input on the rec center via this online survey.
Buddy Toilets
I’m happy to hear the city is looking into doing some upgrades on the Rec Center. It’s used alot but it is starting to show its age. I didn’t know it was built in 1975. Seems like it was so much sooner than that, but then time flys by so quickly and some things need fixin’.
So I would say “yes” to a renovation and possibly to an expansion as well.
If there’s any money left from measure f for LTCC , maybe unspent funds coud go to Parks and Rec. to offset the cost of improvements and upgrades. Just a thought. OLS
My kids were on the swim team at the Rec Center in the early eighties and I used the pool for winter workouts for years. It seemed a fantastic facility back then, but I’m sure it’s overdue for upgrading now.
A few years ago I used the Carson Valley Swim Center five (early!) mornings a week for almost a year for post surgery therapy. It is indeed a spectacular facility, under constant use by the public, which should be envied and imitated by anyone building or re-building a swim center.
On the other hand, and probably the only reason it was successful: it was built and is maintained by a politically independent “East Fork Swimming Pool District.” If Lake Valley Tahoe Fire Protection District can’t even get sufficient funding, how would a “South Lake Tahoe Swimming Pool District” manage?
Use Incline Village as a model!
Good luck paying for this. Too many people in this town want to have all the benefits of an affluent community with all the perks but they don’t want to pay for any of them. As a non-user of the Recreation Center I suppose I could adopt a position and circulate a petition that I don’t want the City spending taxpayer money on fixing a place for other people and their children to go for their entertainment purposes. After all, what good does their entertainment do me when my street needs repair? Let’s just ditch all altruistic ideologies of a cause greater than self and forget about trying to create revenue to pay for making ours a better community for everyone. We all know that money doesn’t grow on trees, nor is it derived at parking kiosks.
(Sarcasm intended.)
i choose to maintain a gym membership. i also exercise outdoors in our beautiful environment. i do not want my tax money spent on the rec center, when it could be spent on curbs and repair on my street. let’s put the kiosks back at the commons so we do not end up paying for that upkeep with tax money better spent elsewhere.
52lexington, This isn’t just about one person staying healthy. It is about a community gathering place, a place for kids to learn to swim, have birthday parties and other events and just generally be a community building location. I am happy to have my tax dollars go to this.
Ooooohhh!!!! An update is needed for the Rec Ctr. indeed!! As a swimmer, I agree with Faye Marie, Grace, and Jenn! Copper too! Carson Valley Swim Ctr. is AWESome, and would be a purrrfect example of how to do it!! I think I’m drooling! Copy East Fork Swimming Pool District’s fine example, and hire the same guys if possible!!! Hire LOCAL contractors and workers dagnabbit! Lake Tahoe Roofing (HI, Lou!!!) knows roofing and hires and inspires fine people. We have so many small local businesses in this town. And for crying out loud, don’t hire a consultant ($$$$$)!!! Just look in the phone book and piece out the work that needs to be done! It will cost less, and help us all out. The community as a whole will benefit- snag some of the money leftover from the college to help out, like OLS says.
The ideas of “snagging” or “using money left over” from Measure F aren’t options. The voters designated those Measure F monies for specific intended purposes which were identified in that Measure for LTCC and that’s what they have to be used for. Monies derived from Measures (unless the voters conduct a second vote to approve changing the original use) or monies received from grant awards have specific designated purposes for which those funds can only be used and are not just a deposit into an entity’s checking account that they can then choose to shift over to something else.
Civics 101.
Starting blocks are never for public use, just for lessons and teams. There is no railing around them so non-monitored usage is an accident waiting to happen.. You can’t keep people from swimming under them and are usually own by swim teams.
A retractible roof, second story with indoor track and meeting rooms are dreaming big.
It would be great to see participation up like it was quite a few years back. Since the layoffs, it is very empty place. It needs to be for the community with visitors (like years gone by) welcome like they’re one of the family.
And remember, the land it sits on, just like Bijou park and Connolley Beach, are dedicated to recreation use FOR the public.
4-mer-usmc. In regards to using unspent money of the 50 million of tax payer dollars that LTCC will receive, for expansion, repairs, turning it into a 4 year college, upgrades, a new roof and rooms that are cold in the winter (this is Tahoe, and yes, it does get cold here) and the proposal of building a dorm.
So my ever increasing property tax bill will get gobbled up pretty darn quick.
And you know, raises in administrative pay and whatever else they can they find to spend the money on. If they get matching funds from the state it will reach 100 million!
I feel that some of this huge amount of money could be used to fix other parts of the city of So. Lake Tahoe.
Maybe a little of the money left over from measure “F” could go to repairing the Rec center. Better yet, how about puting unspent money into a fund to fixing our roads, which ,in case you haven’t noticed, our city streets are falling apart. My street is in bad shape. Pot holes beginning to start, large cracks that go from one side of the street to the other. Oh, and the large cracks? they are about 25 to 30 feet apart, and they aint’ gettin’ no smaller.
So lets put some of our hard earned money into repairs of what is in most need to be repaired. Priorities!
1 would also like to see more police officers, firemen,a larger staff for Clean Tahoe and code enforcement . They are a big asset to this place we call home.We also need more street maiitnance workers. If we get a heavy winter we’re gonna have no way to get in or out. Believe me, with the small crew of city plow drivers, we are stuck!
So how do we pay for all of this? Collecting ALL TOT and raising it up a notch. More events that attract more people into town. Make it attractive for new business to fill our MANY empty commercial buildings along 50. So long as theyr’re cleaned up by the property owmers and made it clean and attraactive to people lookiing to start a business. Open up and start making a living and a profit and start paying city taxes and ” kick start” the local economy!
Just the the views of crazy Old Long Skiis. Peace, bro!
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OLS you can’t use measure F funds for anything other than measure F. Period end of story. There is no ability to take some left over and shift it to the rec enter or anywhere else.
wow! I don’t think I’ve seen a bathroom more wonderfully equipped for “battlesh!ts”. gross.