SEQUIM — Those with valid annual and biannual passes for the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center will be in a state of limbo after the facility closes indefinitely Oct. 30.
Refunds will not be immediately available.
Citing a lack of funds, the board of the exercise center at 610 N. Fifth Ave., known as SARC, voted during a special meeting Wednesday night to close the facility on the final business day of the month.
The sale of annual passes was discontinued in June, and biannual passes stopped being sold in September, said Scott Deschenes, SARC director.
“After Oct. 30, passes will be placed in suspension, not canceled, until all avenues of reopening have been exhausted,” the board said in a joint statement issued Friday.
“Instructions on obtaining pass refunds will be communicated when it is clear that no opportunity exists for reopening.”
It remains to be seen if the outstanding passes will be honored if the athletic center reopens under management of the Olympic Peninsula YMCA in partnership with the SARC board — a possibility currently being explored — said Frank Pickering, SARC board chairman, and Kyle Cronk, YMCA executive director, on Friday.
“That is still being worked out with SARC,” Cronk said.
“I don’t know how we will handle it with the Y, and if we have to shut the facility down, the passes will eventually get refunded,” Pickering said.
“If and when we decide to close the pool permanently, we will make arrangements.”
A permanent shutdown would only happen if the YMCA and SARC are not able to come to terms and no other entity comes forward with a management proposal, Pickering said.
How pay for refunds?
Details as to where the money to pay the refunds would come from are not yet available, but there are several potential sources.
According to Craig Miller, SARC attorney, the board could sell its assets, with proceeds devoted to paying off debts.
SARC’s assets are the land and building on Fifth Avenue and any accounts receivable, Miller has said.
The board also could transfer its assets to any municipal corporation such as the school district, the hospital district, the fire district or a local tribe, he said.
Finally, the board could choose judicial dissolution of the district if no municipal corporation chose to accept SARC’s assets.
If a judge determined that the district was solvent — meaning it has the ability to pay its debts — then the court would order a “fire sale” of the assets by the sheriff, Miller said.
If the court determines SARC to be insolvent, the court could authorize a sale and a special assessment against all of the property within the district in an amount sufficient to pay the debts of the district, Miller said.
All of those options are a “last-ditch” resort, Miller said.
Pickering said he remains hopeful a YMCA management agreement can be hashed out, preventing judicial dissolution.
How it would work
SARC was formed as Clallam County Parks and Recreation District 1, a junior taxing district, in 1988.
The YMCA would come in as a contractor to maintain day-to-day operations, but the SARC board would remain intact and could call for tax levies in the future if needed, Pickering said.
“The concept is that the YMCA board will [propose a] contract to the SARC board,” he said.
“At that point, the SARC board will have to make a decision to accept that contract. We think it will be a management agreement where [the YMCA] will manage the facility. The SARC board will still exist.”
Community comments, which were taken over the past three weeks as part of a $36,000 feasibility study to gauge interest in the YMCA proposal to take over management of SARC, are currently being studied, Cronk said.
The survey period ended Saturday.
“There has been such a huge response,” he said.
“We wanted as many people to weigh in as possible, and that sounds like it is going to happen.”
Information about the number of residents who participated in the study is not yet available, he said.
If the collected data indicates the community responds warmly to the idea, a business plan will be produced and presented to the SARC board for its consideration, he said.
That is expected to happen in mid-November.
YMCA expansion
The Olympic Peninsula YMCA is looking at expanding services in both Sequim and Port Townsend.
In Port Townsend, the YMCA currently operates a program center and is mulling opening a larger recreation center, Cronk said.
“We have just launched the capital campaign feasibility study to get the scope of the project, so I would estimate four to five years from now” for that to come to fruition, said Cronk, who is leaving for a new position in Olympia on Nov. 27.
If the YMCA assumed management of SARC, Y members would be able to use all three facilities for one fee, he said.
The current fees charged to members would be expected to remain at current levels, even with new branches being brought into the fold, Cronk said.
“They would likely stay the same,” he said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
