Pool fees not linked to Port Angeles ballot measure

PORT ANGELES — Fee increases are not linked to a Nov. 7 ballot measure that, if approved, would lead to a planned expansion of the William Shore Memorial Pool.

A headline on a story on Page A1 Wednesday in the Clallam County edition incorrectly said that the pool is looking to raise fees and that a pool expansion would mean a 25-cent rate hike.

“The district board has not discussed any fee increases related to the expansion,” said Steve Burke, executive director, on Wednesday.

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“I haven’t talked about it with the board… That is a board decision. They could go up and they could not go up…. It’s a different issue.”

Burke said Wednesday that “there’s a significant chance” that after a pool expansion, increased use could mean that fees go down, Burke said.

“Every year, we look at fees. A fee increase would have nothing to do with the construction.”

Burke said that while talking with a Peninsula Daily News reporter, he was discussing possibilities only and that a fee increase would be discussed separately from expansion.

If the pool is expanded, operating costs would increase by about $75,000 in the pool operating budget, which is currently $600,000, Burke said Tuesday in an interview following a presentation to the Port Angeles Business Association.

If the ballot measure for a raise in the pool’s debt limit is approved, pool commissioners then would raise property tax, now at $18 cents per $1,000 valuation, by 6 cents per $1,000 valuation in 2018. The money would fund a pool expansion. It would add about $12.80 per year to the property tax bill of the owner of a $200,000 house.

Another increase, about 4 cents per $1,000 valuation, would be necessary later to complete the expansion.

“It would be phased in,” Burke said.

The total property tax increase for the expansion would eventually be an estimated $20 annually. Wednesday’s story erroneously said that the tax would increase by about $20 per $1,000 valuation annually.

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