Sequim’s SARC board to talk about options today in wake of tax levy failure

SEQUIM — Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center commissioners will discuss either re-running a levy proposal, such as the one that failed Feb. 10, or asking voters to approve creating a metropolitan park district when they meet at 5 p.m. today.

What they won’t talk about at the special meeting, which is open to the public, in the gymnasium at the facility at 610 N. Fifth St., is closing, said Frank Pickering, board president.

Officials with Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center, known as SARC, had said that if a proposed property tax levy did not pass, the facility would have to close Dec. 31, 2016.

“When we cannot produce a balanced budget, we must close,” Pickering said.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

SARC has been operating primarily off reserves, and officials figure those will run out by the end of 2016.

But discussions since the measure failed to reach the necessary 60 percent supermajority for passage in the Feb. 10 special election have not been about closure, Pickering said.

“That is the furthest thing from anybody’s mind,” he said.

“We will somehow find a way to keep SARC running.”

Instead, talk has focused on how to gain more revenue, he added.

Board members may make a decision today, Pickering said.

A six-year property tax levy proposal for the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center received 57.5 percent support — 7,258 votes — but needed 60 percent to pass. Opposed were 5,368, or 42.5 percent.

“We made a majority,” said Pickering as he thanked voters for their support.

“The law requires a supermajority.”

The proposed property tax levy was for an estimated 12 cents per $1,000 assessed property value.

As a junior taxing district, SARC — which is Clallam County Parks and Recreation District No. 1 — can go before the voters every six years with a proposed levy, which needs 60 percent approval for passage.

The Feb. 10 proposal was the first public funding sought by the district since 2003.

The recreational facility — which includes pools, saunas and workout equipment along with basketball and racquetball courts — was built with public money in 1988 and run for the first 13 years with funds as a junior taxing district.

Since then, the facility has relied on reserves, which will fall below $350,000 in 2016, supporters said.

Tops on the list are to put the levy on another election ballot — either as it was run Feb. 10 or with changes — or to ask voters to approve a metropolitan park district.

Two board members have investigated the option of re-running the levy proposal and will give a report today, Pickering said.

If SARC became a metropolitan park district, it could have taxing authority without going to the voters.

Voter approval of a metropolitan park district needs only a simple majority for passage.

The William Shore Memorial Pool in Port Angeles became a metropolitan park district in 2009.

Its Board of Commissioners is comprised of two Clallam County commissioners, two Port Angeles City Council members and one member elected by the board.

Also, Pickering said, “People have contacted us with ideas and thoughts, and those will be examined” at today’s meeting.

Pickering said that although officials were disappointed that the levy failed to receive 60 percent voter support, they were heartened by the amount of support it did receive.

“It exceeded what many thought it could do,” Pickering said.

The six precincts that form the city of Sequim approved the proposal by 62 percent, and SunLand backed it by 66 percent, Pickering said.

“There are a number of areas that really believe in the mission that SARC has to provide exercise and recreation and rehabilitation opportunities,” Pickering said.

SARC has a partnership agreement with Olympic Medical Center in which people in the Sequim area can receive post-cardiopulmonary recovery services, and discussions are in the works for more rehab programs, he said.

“The need is out there and the desire is out there and we’re going to make it happen,” Pickering said.

________

Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.

More in News

Four Quileute Tribal School students take a salmon offering into the ocean as part of the annual Welcoming the Whales ceremony at First Beach in La Push on Friday. (Christi Baron/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Welcoming the Whales

On Friday, Quileute Tribal School students performed the annual Welcoming the Whales… Continue reading

Former USAID worker Miguel Reabold, shown with a colleague in Honduras in 2018. (Miguel Reabold)
USAID worker fears damage

Reabold worries about relationships

No flight operations scheduled

There will be no field carrier landing practice operations for… Continue reading

Caro Tchannie and her daughter Lola Hatch, 9, of Tulallip try a long string of beads at Squatchcon on Thursday at the Vern Burton Community Center gym in Port Angeles. Kevin VanDinter of Port Angeles was one of 60 vendors at the four day event, which continues through Sunday. (Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News)
Squatchcon underway

Caro Tchannie and her daughter Lola Hatch, 9, of Tulallip try a… Continue reading

Capital budgets include Peninsula

Millions in state funds earmarked

Mike Chapman.
Chapman asks not to employ legislative privilege

State senator removes an exemption to Public Records Act

Port of Port Townsend considering Short’s Farm access

Commissioners aim to balance public, agricultural use

Jefferson library director to start new job May 19

Meet-and-greet event scheduled for May 22

Man taken to hospital after car hits tree

A man was transported to a hospital after a single-car… Continue reading

Bypass roads to be installed at two fish passage sites

Contractors will begin construction of one-lane bypass roads at two… Continue reading

Emily Matthiessen/Olympic Peninsula News Group
Stew Cockburn stands in the spring annual section prior to it being for early spring gardeners.
New Dungeness Nursery planted in landscaping industry

Family and their employees work 2-acre location in Sequim