Wausau considers rotating pool closings amidst budget cuts

That's one of several cuts department heads made to keep costs down

When Wausau Finance Director Maryanne Groat announced on Monday that the city was likely going to keep only two pools open at a time next year - a savings of $30,000 - I wondered if that would be controversial.

So far, over two budget sessions, not much concern was raised over the move, which would rotate which of the three city pools would be closed on any one day. Though to be fair, discussions haven’t yet begun in earnest. That’s likely coming in budget session No. 3 on Monday.

The pool cut — essentially one city pool would be closed on any given day, saving about $30,000 — was one of several measures council members at the end of Tuesday’s session flagged as potential ones to find a way to restore.

Department heads were challenged to come up with cost savings in response to what Mayor Doug Diny identified as nearly $4 million in new costs - those include everything from the new garbage pickup contract, increases in payroll and health care, operating the new homeless shelter and rising levels of debt.

As The Wausonian reported earlier, in the case of both the city and the county, eliminating positions or not filling them for part or all of 2026 were employed as a cost-saving measure. In total, that means about 20 positions in the city will remain vacant, at least for some of the year.

So far neither Marathon County nor Wausau is planning to cut jobs that are currently filled. All of them are from vacant positions.

But still, it’s rare to see job numbers go backward.

What else was proposed? The Wausonian dove into the city’s budget sessions and the proposed budget dock to give readers a sense of what is coming. And all that comes on the backdrop of a bomb dropped Monday - that the city might go to referendum next year to ask voters to raise spending by $1.2 million.