PORT ANGELES — Saving the life of Port Angeles’ public pool could seem simple compared with designing the lifesaver.
A group of pool-passionate people sought the support of Clallam County commissioners Monday and got it — with strings attached and a new set of options to ponder.
Commissioners informally indicated they’d shoulder a share of the costs of an election that would create a metropolitan park district — possibly including Joyce as well as other unincorporated areas around Port Angeles.
The district, in turn, would levy taxes to support the aging William H. Shore Memorial Pool, now a city facility at Fifth and Lincoln streets.
The election created the first catch: Commissioners said they only would split the $82,000 cost of balloting with the city of Port Angeles.
If voters approve a park district that presumably would sprawl beyond the city limit, the district eventually must play the cost of the election. If it fails, the sponsoring governments split the expense.
The city has committed itself to keeping the pool open until April 1, after which it may close it and save a $400,000 operating deficit.
Secondly, the committee must choose an election date.
It’s realistically too late to prepare a levy for a February election, so the committee’s next chance would come in May.
Well before then, committee members must decide if they will stick with their plan to elect park district trustees or to appoint them.
Deciding the fate of the levy alone would cost $66,000 for a district that would include the Port Angeles and the Crescent school districts. Choosing trustees would cost an additional $16,000.
An elected board also would need to create its own bureaucracy, such as an administrator, personnel director and attorney.
“You’d end up eating hundreds of thousands of dollars before you even started,” said Commissioner Mike Chapman, independent-Port Angeles.
Can levy be capped?
Were Port Angeles city and Clallam County to appoint the trustees, however, the governmental “parents” could absorb many of the overhead costs — similar to other junior taxing districts such as the North Olympic Library System.
“The only money that would be needed would be the money needed to run the pool,” County Administrator Jim Jones told the pro-pool campaigners.
Another issue — this one for city and county lawyers to decide — is whether the levy can be “capped.”
A metropolitan park district could levy up to 75 cents per $1,000 of real property’s assessed valuation even if it needed only 11.5 cents.
Spreading costs further
“There’s no chance, absolutely none, that [voters] are going to give us 75 cents,” Chapman said.
Complicating the issue is that Bill Bloor, Port Angeles city attorney, has said the levy cannot be capped. Mark Nichols, assistant county prosecuting attorney, thinks it can be.
Spreading it to Joyce?
Then there’s the question of the district’s size.
Jones’ figures showed that enlarging the area shrinks the amount each property owner must pay, and the Save the Pool committee has proposed including the Joyce-based Crescent School District in the metropolitan parks operation.
But Jones said, “I’d be a little nervous about including that,” and noted that voters in Joyce’s Fire District No. 4 voted not to raise their levy lid in the Nov. 4 election.
Jones said he thought the committee’s best bet would be to limit the new district to the area served by Port Angeles schools, to split election costs between the city and the county, and to form a separate advisory committee consisting of three City Council members and two county commissioners.
More advice from county
That, though, wasn’t the end of the county’s suggestions.
They included:
• Exploring other budget cuts the city could make to afford funding the pool, said Commissioner Mike Doherty, D-Port Angeles.
• The city also might use some of the $7.5 million it received from the state to settle graving yard/Tse-whit-zen lawsuits, Doherty said.
• Making “green” changes at the pool — such as solar water heating and double-glazing its windows — could add voter appeal and could appeal to grant sources, said Commissioner Steve Tharinger, D-Dungeness.
• Tharinger also asked if the pool could get a discounted rate from its utility provider: the city of Port Angeles.
Making its choices — and making its case for a pool/park district levy — should keep the committee busy into early 2009, commissioners said, when its members should return to secure the county’s support.
“You need to look at the whole picture,” Tharinger said.
“It’s going to take you until May to do that.”
Chapman also asked the committee to return with a voter-ready proposal.
“The ball,” he said, “just got knocked back into your court.”
________
Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Long-range plan
THE SAVE THE Pool committee’s preliminary long-range plan calls for a metropolitan park district with taxing authority to make up $400,000 to close the shortfall in operating expenses at the William H. Shore Memorial Pool.
Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones prepared these figures for raising that amount, comparing the district at three sizes:
•SEnSCity of Port Angeles (11,487 registered voters): 20 cents per $1,000 of a piece of real property’s assessed valuation.
•SEnSCity plus Port Angeles School District (19,210 voters): 11.5 cents per $1,000.
•SEnSCity plus Port Angeles and Crescent school districts (20,975 voters): 10.5 cents per $1,000.
The third option is the committee’s announced choice.
