Corte Madera allots $60K for free swim program

The Corte Madera Town Council has allocated $60,000 to sustain a free summer community swim program at the Redwood High School pool.

The town has funded the program, run by the Soma Aquatics Foundation, since 2022. Last year, the program was reduced because of renovations at the high school.

On Tuesday, town staff asked the council for funding to reinstate the full program, which includes open lap swimming, aqua aerobics for adults and free swim classes for children and adults. The program runs from May to August.

“It’s an exciting moment because we had such a modified program last year,” said Jeremy Engman, a board member for the aquatics foundation.

In 2024, the program drew thousands of visitors from the surrounding area and gave 727 free swim classes to low-income families. About 43% of participants that year were Corte Madera residents, about 10% were Larkspur residents and the rest were from other municipalities.

Town Manager Adam Wolff said he has asked Larkspur to contribute $5,000 for its proportion of program participants.

The town will use Measure F sales tax revenue to fund the swim program. In a report, Wolff said the town has “sufficient funding for youth and senior programming” in both the current and upcoming fiscal year budgets.

Concerns about Corte Madera bearing all the costs for the program were a consistent focus at the council meeting. Engman said the foundation is looking for ways to “alleviate the burden” on Corte Madera.

Councilmember Pat Ravasio asked if it was possible to charge lap swimmers an entrance fee in line with other lap swim programs at Tamalpais High School and Archie Williams High School.

“Corte Madera right now is carrying the burden for both communities to basically swim free all summer long,” she said.

Engman said the foundation tried to charge for lap swimming in the past, but it did not bring significant revenue and was hard to implement. Wolff said the town had previously tried to charge a small fee to non-residents using the program and that had a similar outcome.

Vice Mayor Fred Casissa said that while he supports the program and its benefit to low-income residents and non-residents, he suggested the town look at the model for upcoming years because it is “subsidizing a large portion of the county.”

Pati Stoliar, a Corte Madera resident and founder of Age-Friendly Corte Madera, expressed her support for the program.

“I’m really thrilled that you’re pursuing this,” she said. “I love it. I go every single week, several times a week, and I just want to express my gratitude, so thank you.”