Perhaps consider an online survey next time.

Perhaps send it to all residents instead of a few speaking for us all. Who needs an indoor pool we have 2 schools that have them open them to the public. Allow residents to have bonfires like all the neighboring cities!!!

Yes –thank you –How about an online survey next time?–That’s how Birmingham does it:

http://ci.birmingham.mi.us/index.aspx?recordid=10&page=1339

Royal Oak spent 15K on it's survey and got less than 300 responses
An irresponsible waste of taxpayer dollars

I think an outdoor pool for the summer months would be great. I also agree with the need for a walking path. I did not see a survey in my mailbox. Online would be less expensive and more effective.

Additionally, most Royal oak residents near the downtown area do not have enough yard space for a pool. A community pool for residents only would be a huge draw for families.

With 2 wonderful pools at the middle and high school there is NO need for the added cost and liability of an outdoor pool. But hey...15K for a survey must mean we have excess funds for frivolous things...gotta love RO logic sometimes.

$15K for less than 275 responses? That works out to over $54 per response. What a waste of tax dollars!!

What...a few people telling Royal Oak what we need? Who would of ever imagined that!!!! I think the poll reflects or election results.
Rats will be gone as soon as we receive the financial aid from the county as indicated by our county commissioner. We are going to receive it right?

Where did the $15,000 figure come from? Unless I was drunk, when watching the City Commission meeting earlier this year, where they agreed to move forward with the survey, the cost quoted was $9,000. Admittedly, still too high, in my opinion.

The survey represents less than 5% of the city's population... absolutely useless and an enormous waste of money.

An outdoor public pool... said 114 people who responded to the ridiculously useless survey.

If the human rights ordinance is so controversial, why didn't the city ask that question on the survey? The citizens rejected a human rights ordinance by a 2 to 1 margin in the past. If the city commissioners think that public opinion has changed, why not take the public's temperature in the survey? If they could justify that public sentiment has changed, they could then put the question on the ballot again, for the public to ratify the change.

I've never understood why the school district doesn't use the pools as a source of revenue. I have found it difficult to find hours and cost for open swim in the past. Why not run an prominent ad in Your Schools/Insight which goes to every home? Why not an ad on Patch? Why can't they offer mid-night swims--seems like it would be a nice option for a kid's birthday party.

http://royaloak.patch.com/articles/take-the-online-royal-oak-citizen-survey
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I don't like the school pools. I'd love to have an indoor pool center like Warren does but I realize it may not be a priority in the budget. Re the survey: Why did they only send the survey to 800 people? Surveys always have low response rates. I agree that paying $9k for the opinions of 275 residents seems out of line. But I agree we have a great police and fire dept and we need to keep police, fire and ambulance a budget priority.

I love RoyalOak and own a home here and as senior citizens we would love to stay here. RoyalOak needs more nice,affordable,independent senior living facilities.

I think the Rats would like an outdoor pool too, but they did not receive a survey either. Lay in a supply of Rat floaties.

Nancy, you must be living under a rock, or are a vampire. Take a ride with me, and I can find one in less than 10 minutes for you. And even if you are a vampire, we can find one in less than 20 minutes in the daytime. The entire downtown is ripe for spotting them, along with anywhere along the rail tracks through town, or by any of the grocery stores. They are so prevalent in some south end neighborhoods that they are being spotted flattened in the streets like a dead squirrel.

Duke! Er, Your Highness. I am so sorry but I accidentally deleted some comments, including yours. Feel free to repost. Again, sorry.

Well the survey certainly got the public survey safety millage correct. The report predicted the city’s public safety millage would pass by a 71-29 percent margin; the actual result was 67-33 percent. That is pretty darn close! If you just followed ONLINE comments you would have expected the opposite results. So let's give PARL some credit here. It seems to me they know what they are doing.

The pools at the High School and Dondero are competition pools, very different than a family pool intended for leisure or "fun" swimming. Competition pools need to be kept relatively cool (79 to 81 degrees typically) because warmer water is not conducive to hard training. Family pools are typically kept at 84 to 86 degrees, otherwise young children and older adults tend to turn blue in short order. Varying the temperature in the competitive pool to accommodate leisure use is not feasible when the pool is being used for competition or training- it takes too long to change the temperature in such a large body of water, and would be very expensive re-heating the water to that extent. The other difference is that family pools contain very shallow water for play, zero depth entries to allow access for all and some combination of slides, sprays, interactive features to engage kids in play activities.

The pools at the Middle School and High School are competition pools, which are a completely different animal than a "family" or "leisure" pool. One major difference is water temperature- those pools need to be kept relatively cool (typically 79 to 81 degrees). The water needs to be this cool to enable hard training and competitive swimming. Those temperatures turn young children and older adults blue in short order, they really need water temps in the 84 to 86 degree range. The other main difference is that a family pool needs to have a great deal of very shallow water, from zero to 42" in order to provide safe play areas for smaller children. Family pools also typically include play elements such as water slides, sprays and interactive water toys to engage children in play activities. If you aren't familiar with these types of facilities you should visit one in the area, they really are pretty amazing places.