17.

Some of the methods of financing which have proved satisfactory are?

Cash from public’ treasury '

General bonds of the public body

Revenue bonds r

Private donations of clubs or individuals

Advance sale of admissions

Benefit shows, etc.

Private construction and opveration for a given period

The first of these simply requires selling the public body, such
as city council, park district, the desirability of using its cash for this
purvose,.

The issuance of bonds generally requires the development of public
opinion to the point of apvroving the bonds. “hen the bond election is held
at the same time as a general election, good organization and publicity is
required since approval of the proposition generally reouires a majority of all
votes cast at the election and not simoly a majority of those case on the pro-
position. Particularly when there is an important general election, people
frequently neglect to vote on the snecial bond issues and failure to vote is the
same as a negative vote.

Some states, including Illinois, have laws permitting the issuance
of so-called "revenue bonds" for the construction of swimming pools. These
bonds are secured by the income from the pool only, rather than by all of the
assets of the public body, The approval of such bonds by the public can usually
be obtained easier than approval of a general bond issue since there is no
possibility of such bonds increasing the taxes. However, revenue bonds are more
difficult to sell than are regular bonds,

Particularly if revenu@é bonds are used, it may be necessary or ad-
visable to put on a drive to sell the bonds individually rather than to sell
them through the usual financial channels. Then the bonds are sold in this
manner it is sometimes desirable to offer some special inducement such as re-
duced admission to holders of bonds. This private sale of bonds has been used
considerably by private clubs.

All or part of the cost of many pools has been obtained by donations
from clubs or individuals. here the money is obtained from individuals, it is
necessary to have a well organized and intensive drive the same as for raising
funds for any public enterprise, One scheme which has been used by a few pools
in order to increase the number of small pledges is to dramatize the idea by
making the contributions in terms of sacks of cement and giving each contributor
a small badge bearing a sketch of a sack of cement and the ~ords "I bought a
sack of cement", Of course the cement actually represents not more than about
5% of the cost of the complete pool, but it is a specific item which aids in the
dramatization.

One city registered the results of the drive for funds on a large
placard showing a body in a swimming suit and the caption "Make him swim."

The height of the water indicated the results to date.

The advance sale of tickets has frequently been used to raise part
of the necessary funds. However, th-re is a word of warning regarding the use of
this method. Unless some special provision is made for current operating ex-
penses, the pool may be in difficulties in this respect since its cash income
will be greatly reduced until the advance tickets have been used.

In some instances, pools have been constructed bn public property
by private organizations or individuals with the understanding that the latter
would operate the pool for a given number of years or until the profits from the
pool paid for its cost and then the pool was turned over to the public,

In Sioux City, Iowa, a contractor agreed to build a $30,000 pool
if $7,500 was raised by advance sale of tickets and receive the balance of the cost
from the profits of the pools: the park board to operate the pool from the
beginnine, The Junior Chamber of Commerce sponsored the sale of tickets,