Operator For Proposed Elk Grove Aquatics Center, Amusement Park Withdraws

April 24, 2014 | At last night's Elk Grove City Council meeting, it was announced that the public entity that would have operated ...


April 24, 2014 |

At last night's Elk Grove City Council meeting, it was announced that the public entity that would have operated the city's proposed aquatics center, withdrew from the plan.

During her administrative report, City Manager Laura Gill said that, on April 14, the city heard from P3 International informing them that the proposed operator, Harvest Family Entertainment, had withdrawn its name as a possible operator from the proposed facility. P3I is currently conducting a taxpayer-funded $700,000 feasibility and financing study on the proposed aquatics center.

"P3I has identified an alternate company and we are currently reviewing this companies qualifications and will be making a recommendation when staff review is finalized," Gill said. "In the mean time, work progresses on the feasibility study, the conceptual design and other phase one tasks."

The withdrawal of Harvest marks another hurdle for the city in the proposed civic center facility. At previous meetings, the appropriateness of locating the water amusement park in a residential neighborhood was criticized not only by the public, but Elk Grove Council Member Pat Hume, as well. 

Also, Hume and fellow council member Steve Detrick have said they would only support the center if it were cost-neutral for taxpayers. Because of this parameter, when the original request for proposal was released, only P3I submitted a bid.

Gill did not say during the meeting when city staff would complete their review.



       





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27 comments

Anonymous said...



Southgate......


WHOOPS!

Anonymous said...

And, thus, hopefully the end of this nonsense. It needed to die along with the Soccer Stadium.

Capt. Benjamin L. Willard said...

Aside from being a colossal waste of money and city staff time, Mayor Davis really needs to be held to account on this and the soccer stadium scheme noted above.

In both cases, Mr. Davis packed council chambers with youth swimmers and soccer players and get them all fired up - as if to pressure his fellow council members. What a stupid stunt and shameful use of our city's youth for his own parochial purposes.

Sister City Coffee Beans said...

The $700,000 study is already paid for and may very well end up being a pricy bookend on a dusty bookshelf at Dream Hall, I mean City Hall.

Beware of scraping the bottom of the barrel to find an operator, because a fool will always rush in where wise men never tread, and then us taxpayers are stuck with the bond debt and abandoned equipment. I shall call this project, Son Of Ice Rink!

Anonymous said...

700,000 for a study we probably won't need or use. As taxpayers we should be outraged. Did this council NOT listen to the citizen's when the consensus indicated less than minimal support for the water park. Another lesson this council should learn, but will just dismiss like the 700,000. Mayor Davis should be ashamed and he needs to apologize to us citizens for spending tax dollars foolishly. RE: a new proposal from another company....don't touch that proposal with a 100 ft pole. Nothing by trouble. Just let it go....move on.....now, let's get that stupid soccer stadium stopped.....let's go back to a soccer/multi use soccer complex for kids ages 5-19 to play. Nothing fancy....a snack bar, changing rooms, ref room...and 8-10 soccer fields.

Anonymous said...

Stop trying to compete with Kevin Johnson.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone name one thing this city manager has really accomplished beside the ice rink?

Anonymous said...

Harvest Family Entertainment builds waterparks...NOT Aquatics Centers. Why they were ever considered for this project is beyond me. Most likely that is why they pulled out...no expertise and a money loser to boot. Time to just kiss that $700,00. goodbye and build those soccer fields that the people of this fair city wanted in the first place. From now on Mayor Davis, just stick to making java & leave the big stuff to someone else.

Thomas A. Anderson said...

Now that it appears that the mayor's vanity projects are on their respective death beds, maybe they can focus on getting those soccer fields built for our kids and tournaments and not for Fabian Nunez. Are you listening Nancy-Pablo?

And leave the pools to the CCSD and Southgate. They are the experts around here.

As for Laura Gill, I'm not big fan of her, but she is just going with the marching orders from her bosses.

Shrimp Boy Chow said...

How about the huge amount paid to the architect that designed the octopus looking "World Class" city hall?

No wonder Elk Grove is a big joke in the Sacramento area.

Every time we turn around there is something goofy going down in Elk Grove.

Lynn said...

Please people who post and read this site; spread the word about what is going on in our city!!! Please the chamber halls need to be packed by the residents. Personally I am getting tired of binders of feasibility and market studies. But then I am the complainer....I spoke up about the location of the water park....our leaders chose not to listen to me....than...only after they said yes to spending 700,000 come to the realization the location is not good. I would of loved the 700,000 to go to one of the local parks....how about Pirate Island???? The kids would have something to enjoy so much sooner than later and it would be open to any.....not everyone will have the financial means to go to the "water park" every week. We all deserve better not bigger.....Better....Quality of Life...Better......lets do Better before we get to Bankrupt.

Jughead said...

You forgot better leadership too!

Anonymous said...

I would be there at EVERY council meeting if only the city transit system provided service.

As an e-van rider, I can get to meetings, but am only allowed to stay a short time - then service is cut short and I cannot stay for the full meeting, however long it lasts.

Sure would like to be there. Some reason why the disabled of Elk Grove cannot have transit to council and other meetings???

Someone who used to care said...

It seems to me the city should provide e-van service to city meetings, allowing everyone access to our city government. Council members please look into this.

As for this aquatics fiasco, the signs are everywhere that this concept should be shelved. Poor site selection, lack of offers from potential operators, the one operator that originally offered a contract pulling out, seeming inability of the a final project to even break even financially, are all red lights warning the city that this is NOT A GOOD PROJECT.

Additionally, the Southgate project, despite Ms. Gill's rose colored point of view, will make the project even more questionable financially. The projects are very similar. Both can hold up to Jr. College swim meets and 3 and 5 meter diving competitions as well as allow for recreational swimming for residents, very likely at a lesser cost than EG can meet.

As a poster above stated, Davis has to stop competing with Kevin Johnson. That's a fight he cannot win, EVER. He just makes this city look foolish every time he speaks.

Frank Deford said...

We no disrespect intended to people with disabilities, the city council has a severe case of ADHD.

They bounce from one project to another like a Casanova in heat. They seemingly love every stupid idea presented, spend money and walk away with nothing.

There seems to be widespread support for a series of soccer fields to serve our city's various soccer leagues (youth and adult) and to host tournaments. Instead of pursuing this practical project that actually serves our youth and could bring some money into the city, they have wasted over three years with softball stadiums, pro soccer stadiums and now the pool facility.

Put your egos aside you wise men on the city council and do something novel for a change - the right thing!

Anonymous said...

I have watched either live or taped broadcast of the council meetings for several years. What I see as the real problem is that residents comes to the city council meetings and ask for services that are really not the city's responsibility. If I understand who is the responsible agency for different service and who receives the lion’s share of our property tax dollars, Social Services should be handled by the County of Sacramento (Food Bank for one example) , Park and Recreation (Pools and Sport Fields for a couple of examples) should be handled by the Consumnes Community Service District (CCSD), and as we have heard that the EG School District has cancelled most of the student bus service and never built a single pool at the High Schools. These same residents that come to city council with request to do what the responsible parties are not doing and should go to the truly responsible board meetings of the Sac County, CCSD and EGUSD to get what they are already paying them for and not the city of elk grove to solve other agencies problems in my opinion. I would love for my neighbor to help pay for my house payment, car payment, insurance, utility bills, food and so on. That would make as much sense as the city of elk grove paying for the other agencies responsibility.

Anonymous said...

To Anon at 9:01...what the hell are you talking about????? The city is the one pushing the pool, not CCSD....the city is the one pushing the soccer and water park, not CCSD.....Our city instigates most of these stupid ideas and then can't seem to follow through. What about bus service...remember, the CITY booted RT out of town because "we can do it better" and then failed miserably in the transit dept. I am a regular attendee at meetings and I would like understand your point of view...can you specifically identify something our city is doing that you think they should not be doing....Our city is pretty damn good at NOT doing a lot of things...so your statement that they seem to do other's jobs is interesting....please elaborate.

Jughead said...

Anon 9:01; I agree with you on the point the city does not need to do services that other government entries already or should be responsible for providing.

To expand on your point though, I don't think council member are pursuing these ventures for altruistic reasons or to fill severe gaps in service to our residents. My view is these are ego driven projects.

It is no mistake Mr. Cooper has children involved in competitive softball. Why do you think he was such a big supporter of the plans for the softball fields?

How about Mr. Davis and his MLS scheme? Could it be a way for him to ingratiate himself with Democratic Party big-wigs and give Mr. Nunez a little payoff at taxpayers expense? Why Mr. Davis's big push for the pool? Could it be his young family wants to have a pool for their training not operated by the CCSD?

The next project I expect to see is Mr. Detrick pitching for a competitive ski lake to meet all the pent up demand for Elk Grove water skiing and Mr. Hume will push for another PPP at the civic center - Public Private Pub.

Say what you will about Ms. Scherman, but at least she got that doggone sound wall built and sidewalk infill done.

Anonymous said...

It seems to me there is a hugh step being skipped over before doing these Feasibility Studies and that is the cities lack of doing a pre-feasibility analysis of their own with perhaps a consultant.

We now have another Feasibility Study for an Animal Shelter in the works at a cost of $58,000. In following this process it seems there was one veterinary along with a petition signed by many in Sacto & some as far away as France that prompted this study. Why was Galt, Wilton & perhaps others not consulted & asked their opinions & interest "before" this study? I believe a private or corporate business would do their homework first before having a Feasibility Study done. Like what are the land & bldg. costs for such a venture...giving me a ballpark cost to know if I can financially make it go.

Before you all jump on board and scream at me, just know that I am on board with research being done for a shelter, but in a different order than what the city is doing. Our council seems to follow what might be best politically for them...be da--- the taxpayers!

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:36, I agree with you. Why can't city staff do a more in-debt preliminary report? What exactly are they doing? Yes, an animal shelter may be needed and helpful, but at what cost?

Anonymous said...

It would be so great if this whole project dies for good, never to rear its ugly head again. When we moved into the area, I was originally okay with a pool, providing a place for the Pirahna's to practice but an entire waterpark is unacceptable in the neighborhood.

Connie said...

What does it say that here was only one company willing to handle the operations and then they back out? And now there is an alternative company but they haven’t been vetted. What happens if this new company doesn’t qualify? Then what?

The Elk Grove City Council needs to go back to the planning the soccer complex and get going on that. The complex could be completed in less than a year and we could be booking tournaments now and bringing in revenue in the short term.

Lynn said...

Do you suppose the council leaders just might be running out of our monies to spend on "projects"? I only pose this question because they are attempting to figure out how to raise money for our failing roads by raising our taxes, oops....4 of them preferred to kick the can down the road....they just couldn't listen to Councilman Trigg who has nothing to loose by speaking the truth.
BTW....our city leaders are not regional players...if they had worked with instead of against other gov't agencies we could have a better city....I keep saying it; they are empire building and the serfs(taxpayers)are working harder to pay more in taxes....and for what?

Capt. Benjamin L. Willard said...

Ms. Wheat I believe the word for that behavior your describe of our leaders is "parochial".

Anonymous said...

Also, 'insular', 'isolationist', 'not team players'

Capt. Benjamin L. Willard said...

I think the word you are looking for in "rogue".

Shrimp Boy Chow said...

Great comment:


"They bounce from one project to another like a Casanova in heat. They seemingly love every stupid idea presented, spend money and walk away with nothing.".


I have another idea; let's build a world class truck pull and mud wrestling venue.

That will make Elk Grove a true destination city.


.

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