PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles Power Equipment’s owners and employees put their cooking skills on the line last week for the William Shore Memorial Pool.

They raised about $350 through a weeklong bake sale at the store, which the company matched, bringing the total raised to about $700.

The money will be used to help fund the operations cost of the pool through June.

“I thought it was awesome,” said Wendy Burwell of Save the Pool PA, which is raising money to support the public pool at 225 E. Fifth St., in Port Angeles.

“I was blown away that much money was raised from a bake sale.”

Fundraisers

The bake sale took place a week before Save the Pool PA’s back-to-back fundraisers for the pool this weekend: a concert by The Lonely H band today and a dinner and silent auction on Saturday.

Save the Pool PA is raising money to keep the public pool in operation until after a special election to form a metropolitan park district to fund it is decided.

The city of Port Angeles will stop funding the gap between the pool’s expenses and revenues — which is estimated at about $400,000 for all of 2009 — on March 31.

Suzy Traband, who owns Port Angeles Power Equipment with her husband, Mike Traband, said they held the bake sale because the pool is an important part of the community.

“I think kids should learn to swim, especially when we live in a town surrounded by water,” she said.

Traband, who previously taught swimming and water aerobics classes at the pool, said the pool also benefits adults.

“It services a lot of people in the community,” she said.

Purchasing the baked goods, which included cookies, cake and banana bread, required a minimum donation of $2.

Public enthusiasm

Traband said her customers were enthusiastic about supporting the pool.

“One guy put $10 in and said, ‘I don’t want any goodies, but I want the pool to stay,'” she said.

Traband said all of her 32 employees contributed to the bake sale and that she baked something every night last week.

Today’s benefit concert features The Lonely H — a Port Angeles band that has toured nationwide.

The concert will be from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Port Angeles Eagles Club, 110 S. Penn St.

Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. They can be purchased at Port Book and News, 104 E. First Street in downtown Port Angeles; Cowboy Country, 923 E. First St., Port Angeles; and McHugh Realtors, 422 E. Washington St., Sequim.

Burwell is organizing Save the Pool PA’s dinner and silent auction that will begin at 5 p.m. Saturday at 7 Cedars Casino.

Tickets, $20 each, are still available. They can be purchased by phoning Burwell at 360-460-3903.

More than 160 items will be auctioned Saturday. The items include:

• Four VIP tickets to the Dr. Phil television show.

• Four VIP tickets to the Dr. Oz television show, provided by Oprah Winfrey.

• A night for two at Lake Crescent Lodge.

• Two hours of free bowling at Laurel Lanes.

All of the money from the fundraisers — including the bake sale — will be used to fund the pool’s gap in expenses and revenue from April through June.

Save the Pool PA has raised roughly $64,000 — about enough to fund the pool through May — and it needs at least $90,000 to keep the pool going through June.

If voters approve a metropolitan park district, a tax would be levied on property owners inside the Port Angeles School District boundary to pay for the pool.

Special election

The Port Angeles City Council and Clallam County Board of Commissioners agreed to hold the special election last month — with the intent of mailing ballots to voters living within the school district in May.

The levy initially could range from 12 cents to 29 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation, Yvonne Ziomkowsi, city finance director, said last month.

That would mean a tax of between $23 and $57 per year on a $200,000 home.

If it is approved, the levy would pay for the pool funding gap, reimbursing the city and county for the total cost of the election, administration costs — such as accounting fees — and any loans the park district would use before it receives property tax revenue in April 2010.

The pool opened in May 1962 and was expected to last about 40 years.

A $13.8 million bond issue to replace the pool with an elaborate aquatics center was turned down by voters in November 2006.

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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.