Dear Lakesiders:
We thank you for your support and commitment to Lakeside through your gifts of time, talent and treasure. Lakeside has weathered many challenges this past year necessitating resilience and renewed commitment to preserve our beloved community for years to come.
The Lakeside staff and Association Board, together with the Lakeside Chautauqua Foundation and Lakeside Property Owners Association (LPOA), have worked hard to examine Lakeside’s current financial health and plan for the 2022 summer season. While Lakeside faces an uphill climb on many fronts, we are hopeful and have developed goals to guide us into our 150th Chautauqua Season in 2023 and beyond.
Below we have included our goals for this season and attached our 2022 admission rates, which were established in response to these objectives.
2022 Goals:
· Present a robust Chautauqua program for the 2022 season. Many of you have expressed a desire to return to a full calendar of events. Towards this goal, we will once again present programming in Hoover Auditorium, including regular Sunday worship featuring Preachers of the Week. Additionally, the Steele Memorial Bandstand will once again feature arts and religious life programming on select weekdays. Daily education programs will continue, as well as religious life programing including God Squad and MGM. We anticipate fully operational pool and recreation venues with the return of children’s swim lessons and new programming.
· Maintain sufficient staffing levels. A full summer season at Lakeside, complete with programming, facility maintenance and guest services, requires a significant investment in wages to attract and retain employees. The nationwide labor crisis and the ever-shortening summer break for high school and college students have also contributed to staffing challenges. We must increase wages to secure adequate full-time and seasonal staff to support over 100 days of activities and services.
· Maintain a balanced budget. For the past two seasons, we have operated on a limited program calendar with reduced admission rates. Due to significant inflation and cost of goods and wages, an increase in admission and gate fees is necessary to cover the expense of basic operations and continued quality programming. Homeowners can anticipate a communication in April regarding an increase in assessment fees for 2022 to be allocated to the maintenance of streets and sanitation.
We acknowledge and respect that not all Lakesiders will agree with the increased fees but ask for your trust and support of the Lakeside leadership as we navigate these challenging transitions and make difficult decisions to protect the Lakeside Chautauqua experience for future generations.
Toward this goal, a preservation fee has been added to adult daily and weekly. This fee will serve to preserve and protect our landscapes, shoreline, buildings, and amenities that have played a meaningful role in Lakeside’s past while carefully integrating improvements for the future. Through our careful planning now, our hope is that generations to come will be able to experience Lakeside and develop their own connections.
Please know that in the meantime, we are exploring other funding possibilities through various grants, tax increment financing, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and county officials.
We remain dedicated to open communication and transparency and will continue to respond to your questions and share information over the coming weeks. Please feel free to contact us directly at the emails listed below.
We ask for your prayers and grace as we continue to advance the mission and work to secure an economically healthy Lakeside.
Here’s hoping spring is not too far away, and we look forward to seeing you in Lakeside soon!
