PORT ANGELES — Pool district commissioners have passed a $13.3 million budget that funds the ongoing construction of a new Shore Aquatic Center in Port Angeles.
Commissioners voted 4-0 Tuesday to approve a 2020 budget that shows $11.2 million in revenue, $13.3 million in total expenses and an ending fund balance of $1.9 million.
“We’ve worked very hard to get to this point,” said Cherie Kidd, pool board president and a Port Angeles City Council member, in a meeting at the Clallam County commissioners’ office.
District Commissioners Kidd, Randy Johnson, Michael Merideth and Anna Manildi also voted Monday to approve a 2020 property tax levy that will raise $1.5 million for pool operations and debt service, a $250,000 increase from 2019.
The levy rate will be raised from 37 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to 40 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
“This increase is necessary to make the debt service payments from the bonds issued for the renovation and expansion project,” Shore Aquatic Center Executive Director Steve Burke said in a budget summary.
The$20.1 million renovation and 9,000-square-foot expansion of the pool at 225 E. Fifth St. is on schedule to be completed in June.
“They’ve been hustling,” Kidd said at the meeting.
“Even on the weekends they’re working.”
Neeley Construction and its subcontractors have completed demolition work, installed utilities and poured concrete for a new parking lot on the west side of the building.
A construction crane lowered panels Tuesday for a new roof on the south side of the aquatic center, which is being expanded from 14,000 square feet to 23,000 square feet.
The new-look Shore Aquatic Center, formerly William Shore Memorial Pool, will have a children’s pool with splash and play features, a warm-water therapy pool and larger locker rooms and offices near a glassed main entrance off Lincoln Street.
Burke, who is also a Port of Port Angeles commissioner, did not attend the Monday pool board meeting because he was in Amsterdam on port business.
When reached by cellphone in Europe late Tuesday, Burke said it was difficult to forecast next year’s revenue because of the extended pool closure.
“The budget for next year is a little bit of an unknown because we’ll be open for half the year and closed for half the year, roughly,” Burke said.
“We’re going to need to be flexible in how it transpires.”
In a budget summary, Burke said the district will spend $11.6 million next year to complete the renovation and expansion.
Foundation work continues Tuesday at the Shore Aquatic Center in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
The pool district received $4.3 million in grants and state appropriations to help pay for the long-planned expansion.
“The district is fiscally healthy, with sufficient revenue to meet operational and capital needs, debt service and maintaining an adequate ending balance in the general fund and capital fund for our policy reserve requirements,” Burke said in a budget message.
The metropolitan park district that has operated the pool since it was transferred from the city of Port Angeles in 2009 has a maximum taxing capacity of 75 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Burke on Tuesday said the 40-cent levy rate should be sufficient for the long term.
“We should be able to stay there,” Burke said.
The assessed value in the pool district, which shares a boundary with the Port Angeles School District, had risen by 9.8 percent this year, Burke said in a Monday memo.
“The district had anticipated needing to raise the levy to $0.43 [per $1,000] to cover the project financing costs, but with the increase in assessed values and savings in project costs the recommended levy is $0.40 or $1.5 million,” Burke said.
The pool was renamed Shore Aquatic Center after it closed to the public in May.
Project updates will be posted on the Shore Aquatic Center’s new website, www.sacpa.org.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
