Recreation discount for employees proposed
Most Greensburg residents will pay 20 percent more next year for a season pass to the city's swimming pool, but city workers and their families will splash for half the price under a proposed new employee benefit.
Greensburg Council is expected to introduce a bill tonight that will give city workers and their families a 50 percent discount on individual and family passes to Veterans Memorial Pool at Lynch Field, as well as Mt. Odin Golf Course and the Kirk S. Nevin Arena.
The bill proposes the 50 percent discount for workers "to encourage employees ... to participate in lifelong leisure activities."
Ninety full-time employees, both union members and non-union workers, would be eligible for the benefit, city administrator Thomas Sphon said last week.
Mayor Karl E. Eisaman said the idea for the proposed benefit originated with Councilman Roland R. Mertz, who saw it as a way to make the city's part-time jobs at the golf course more attractive. The mayor said he wanted to make all full-time employees eligible for such a benefit, so Sphon was asked to develop a policy.
Officials decided to propose a 50 percent discount because city council "did not believe (season passes) should be given for free," Sphon said.
The city is hoping the discounts "may attract some people who might not buy memberships," Eisaman said.
The total number of people who take advantage of the discount probably will be a small percentage of those using the recreation facilities, he said.
Eisaman said the discount proposal was in the works before council adopted a tentative 2004 budget that boosts the cost of a family pool pass by 20 percent, from $125 to $150 for residents. Cost of the pool passes had remained the same for about five years.
The proposed benefit for employees who golf at Mt. Odin Golf Course next year is worth $200 or $300. Residents who do not work for the city will pay $400 for an adult pass or $600 for a family pass.
Ice skaters who do not work for the city will pay $70 for adult season passes, good for a total of 20 skating sessions at Kirk S. Nevin Arena. Cost of a children's pass is $50.
The proposed benefit does not extend to daily admission rates to the recreational facilities, unless the employees work at the pool, the ice rink or the golf course. Pool and ice rink employees get free admission to the facility where they work.
At Mt. Odin, employees can golf for free during any week in which they are scheduled to work more than 20 hours. They also are permitted to use a golf cart no more than twice a week.
The benefit for the golf course employees is patterned after those at many private and public golf courses where workers are allowed to play the course, Sphon said.
In the early 1990s, free admission to Greensburg's recreation facilities was provided to the city's elected officials, top supervisors and solicitor -- a total of 12 people.
Sphon, who created the "green card" program while serving as recreation director, said that benefit was discontinued after news stories about the program were published in 1994.
The bill offering the new employee benefit will become an ordinance and take effect if council approves it upon a second reading. That most likely would occur at the panel's January meeting.
