South Orange Village Council introduced an ordinance on first-reading Monday night that, if adopted, will combine the outdoor and indoor recreation memberships into a single membership that will cost individuals $70, with a maximum of $350 per family.
“Instead of two separate $50 memberships, residents will now have one comprehensive membership at $70 per person; $60 for seniors 62 and older,” said South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum. “The new structure includes all previous benefits, including pool access, discounted tennis and pickleball court reservations, Baird room rental discounts, and $5 off each Baird program.”
There would also be a 3% increase in program fees, roughly $4 to $5 per program, Collum said, as well as the addition of new field striping fee for outside organizations renting the South Orange playing fields, which is meant to offset supply costs associated with the new field striping equipment being added next year.
“These updates are designed to keep pace with rising staffing costs tied to the state’s increasing minimum wage, while also reflecting the Village’s ongoing investment — nearly $2 million in pool and facility improvements over the past 18 months,” she said.
Council Member Bobby Brown, part of the Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee, said, “I would also just take my hat off to our Cultural Affairs staff, all the work that was put into this analysis, making sure that while the analysis was sound, that as a community we keep in mind what we want these facilities to do — serve as many people as possible. So I think that everyone struck a very amazing balance between those two things while serving the community the whole time.”
Collum also reminded the public that there are opportunities for those who “have less means to be able to take advantage and to work with our recreation staff for discounting programs or fee waivers and things of that nature,” she said. “And anybody registering for a program can also make a contribution to our recreation trust fund. I think more than anything is that we just want to make sure all of our programs are accessible to every member of our community.
Council member Olivia Lewis-Chang, also on the Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee, said committee members were concerned about the expense to the public but she felt they came to a compromise on an increase that seemed reasonable. They did not all agree on the increase, she said, “but I think we came to a solution that is going to serve the community well.”
The first-reading passed 5-1 with Council Member Summer Jones voting against it. The ordinance will come back up for discussion on second reading on December 8, 2025.
The full ordinance and list of fees is below:
