Survey Finds Community Satisfied with Recreational Programs and the Pool
Survey focuses on user satisfaction with Piedmont Recreation Department programs.
The Piedmont Recreation Department (PRD) has released a 75 page report on community satisfaction with the programs and facilities. Families with school age children represented approximately 700 of the 994 respondents. More than 25% of the respondents are not residents of Piedmont. The report notes that many non-residents feel PRD should “serve the whole community, not just Piedmont.” The survey method did not prevent multiple responses from the same household.
Many new programs were suggested for adults, including seniors, to address a perceived lack: field trips, a community garden, passive recreation, book clubs, Senior Day, Bocce. However, 22% of respondents felt no additional programs are necessary.
Preschool programs are very popular with users.
Virtually all (94%) users of the PRD preschool programs are somewhat or very satisfied with the programs.
The Community Pool was the only PRD facility addressed by the survey.
The Piedmont Community Pool currently has over 200 pass holders, providing 57% of the pool revenue. According to Figure 4 of the report, 83% of current pass holders are “somewhat likely” or “very likely” to renew their passes, higher than a number of private Bay Area clubs. A sizable majority (68%) of Community Pool users who responded to the survey are satisfied with it.
Read the complete report here.
I don’t see how PCA can come to the conclusion that the Rec Department survey concludes that “community is satisfied” with the pool. Just the opposite is true from the survey, as the report concludes:
“Takeaway: The community clearly values the aquatics program, however given the pool’s current capacity and condition, non-users and users alike are generally not satisfied with its ability to meet the needs of the community.”
Likewise, from the report:
“Piedmont Community Pool has over 200 pass holders and they represent the core user group of the pool in terms of numbers, frequency of use and revenue contribution. Combined they contributed 57 percent of the aquatics revenue in fiscal year 2014-15. …However, among pass holders only 57 percent of respondents are highly likely to renew their passes in the coming year.”
Community opinion about the pool has to more broken out into annual and seasonal users and non-users. Others should read the report for themselves but I think the general conclusion of the report for seasonal users is that it is too crowded due to lack of access to the main pool and for non-users that the pass fees are too high. Both of these could be easily addressed by reducing lap swimming hours, many which go unused, and lowering seasonal pass rates. Surprisingly, seasonal rates were raised in last month’s budget, which would be just the opposite of what the report suggests the community wants.