PORT TOWNSEND — A leader in the effort to locate an aquatic recreation center at the southeastern corner of Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park was unfazed Friday by Admiralty Audubon’s announced opposition of the 40,000-square-foot facility’s proposed site.
“I respect the Audubon Society, but we respectfully disagree with them,” Karen Nelson, president of Make Waves!, said Friday in response to a written statement from Admiralty Audubon president Rosemary Sikes.
“Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park is a nature park,” Sikes said in the prepared statement.
“It’s a place where a person can get away from large buildings and traffic and be surrounded by trees, green plants, birds and other wildlife. An aquatic center does not belong there.”
Nelson, a regular user of the city’s existing pool, said members of Make Waves! met with Sikes twice before she delivered the Audubon group’s official position.
Sikes has said she traverses the park daily between her home and downtown and routinely volunteers in efforts to clean up and clear the park of scotch broom.
Most recently, Sikes and her husband, Ron, went before the Port of Port Townsend commissioners, asking that they leave Kah Tai, 20-acres of which is port owned, as natural parkland.
Representatives of Make Waves! are on the Port commissioners’ 9:30 a.m. Feb. 13 workshop agenda, and Nelson said proposal similar to that presented to Jefferson Transit’s board about two weeks ago would be delivered.
At the time, Make Waves! proposed placing a small portion of the aquatic center, the building’s entrance, on Transit’s Haines Place Park and Ride, and for use of aquatic center parking at the 250-space park and ride.
Transit board members, including the three Jefferson County commissioners and Port Townsend City Councilwoman Catharine Robinson, asked for more specific siting information before they could act on the proposal.
“The board wanted to see what conceptually we are buying into,” Jefferson Transit General Manager Dave Turissini said Friday, adding that the Transit board would likely further discuss the Make Waves! proposal at its 1:30 p.m. Feb. 19 meeting at the Port Townsend Fire Station conference room, Lawrence and Harrison streets.
“The board is not going to act until they see a formal presentation that says exactly what they want.”
Nelson said Make Waves! has done a considerable amount of research on the location, finding the site to be the best possible location because it would allow easy countywide access to public transit at a time when gas prices are soaring.
The central location, she said, “Is a way of integrating the facility into the community. It seemed to be the perfect site. The park and ride site seemed to suit the biggest group in the community.”
The proposed pool would be modeled after the Sequim center, a center in Whitefish, Mont., and one in Bend, Ore., said Harriet Capron, Make Waves! board secretary.
