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Recreation center focus of meeting

Janet Urquhart
Aspen Times Staff Writer

Aspen officials want to make sure they’re on the right track as they plan day-to-day operations at the new Aspen Recreation Center, which will open early next year.

The Recreation Department will host a public meeting Wednesday, May 15, in the Aspen Middle School commons to go over details such as the fees local residents will pay, hours of operation, programs that will be offered and parking and transportation. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m.

“I just want to make sure, going into the opening of this building, that we have met the needs of the community,” said Tim Anderson, recreation director. “Anything that comes up that we hadn’t thought of, we’ll go back and address it.”



The city will likely hold one more informational session in the fall as a follow-up to this week’s meeting, he said.

Anderson said he plans to give about a 30-minute presentation on the city’s operating plans for the Iselin Park facility, which will include two swimming pools, an ice rink, a climbing wall and the new Aspen Youth Center.




Then he wants to field questions and concerns. The focus will be the operation of the facility, not its design, he stressed.

Anderson and his staff presented the proposed fees, hours of operation and general programming strategy for the facility to the City Council late last year.

A three-tiered rate structure in which city residents pay the cheapest fees received council support.

The daily rate for city residents will be $5.50 for children and youths and $8.50 for adults. For valley residents, the fees will be $6 and $9, respectively, and nonresidents will pay $9 and $11.70, respectively.

Rates for annual passes, six-month passes and a 20-punch pass are also proposed. For Aspenites, the annual pass will cost $231 for youths, $380 for adults and $832 for families. The rates for valley residents would be $278, $459 and $958, respectively.

The daily rate and various pass options will give a user access to the swimming pools, the ice rink and the climbing wall when they are open for general public use, according to Anderson.

Proposed hours of operation are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays. On weekends, the pools would be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, but the rink could be open as late as 10:30 p.m.

The recreation center, dubbed The ARC, is now under construction at Iselin Park on Maroon Creek Road, near the Aspen schools campus.