PORT TOWNSEND — The Board of Jefferson County Commissioners plans to hold a public hearing to form a Public Facilities District on March 10.
The Public Facilities District (PFD) would be formed as one of several steps in the current push toward a public aquatic center, commissioner Greg Brotherton said.
A primary function for PFDs is as a fundraising mechanism, County Administrator Mark McCauley said.
A countywide survey put forth by Jefferson Aquatic Coalition (JAC) is currently gathering data on how much support a two-tenths of 1 percent sales tax would have. Brotherton said more than 1,600 surveys have been completed already.
“The principal source of revenue would be the tax measure, if it were to be passed by a move of the public,” McCauley said.
While forming a PFD is only one step in the process of moving toward an aquatic center, Brotherton said it is both an optimistic and a logical next step.
“It doesn’t mean that we are creating the sales tax,” he said. “It means we’re creating an organization that is going to lead this effort, and it will definitely rely on both foundational giving, private giving, grants, searching out grants at the both the state and the federal (levels), and very likely an ask of the voters as well.”
For a PFD to perform private donor fundraising, it would need to partner with a private organization, McCauley said.
“Just to point out that JAC has already raised that seed funding for the first year, a $120,000 effort,” Brotherton said.
The board is likely to approve a public hearing notice on Monday.
Should the PFD form at the March 10 hearing, the next step would be for the commissioners to solicit applicants for the PFD board, McCauley said.
After the BOCC chooses the board from its applicants, the board will host its first meeting and adopt its bylaws. McCauley said the plan is to have a draft prepared for the board, which will have 60 days to adopt its bylaws.
“Once it’s formed, it’ll start looking at funding options,” McCauley said. “They’ve applied for a design grant, and a ballot measure will have to be developed. I think the target would be the general election in November.”
A sales tax would be the funding mechanism used to repay a bond, which the PFD would have to pursue, McCauley said.
Some public comments supported the formation of a PFD.
JAC treasurer Jan Fisler said she’s been working toward a new pool facility for more than a decade.
“This is the closest I’ve seen it come,” she said. “I encourage you all to go forward with it. It is very important for this community and for those of us who need the pool for therapeutics. I have been in (Mountain View) pool since 1969. It’s a long time, and many of my friends are from there, and we age well, because we exercise at least three times a week in that pool.”
Lifeguard Cray Henry served on the Healthier Together Task Force and said he has been working on organizing for a new pool facility for nine years.
“Some people can’t move,” he said. “It’s essential to their health. It’s essential to a lot of us that just swim, to do laps, to get regular exercise, but it’s even more important to the people that need it just to be able to move. I worked on the task force, and clearly, from all those discussions, this is an essential step. If we don’t get a PFD, the momentum dies and it doesn’t happen.”
Others questioned the need to form a PFD before the JAC survey results are in, noting the strain that a new tax could put on less wealthy community members.
“I have the luxury of not having to worry about how this tax really affects me,” Jim Friedman said. “I make a good enough salary that it’s not a big deal. The thing that changed my mind about the pool was during the original Quilcene meetings, where I heard people talking about that this is coming down to lesser food on their table because they have to put money into a tax. I think we have to figure out a way how to tax the people that can afford to pay that tax, versus forcing it on the entirety of the county.”
Friedman noted that forming a PFD does not mean the pool will succeed. He said that the city of Pasco formed a PFD in 2000, but voters didn’t pass a tax until 2022. A lot of money was spent in feasibility studies and failed ballot measures, Friedman said. The pool has yet to be constructed, he added.
“Maybe it takes 20 years, like in Pasco, but you know, they passed the bond in Pasco,” Brotherton said. “They’re going to get a new aquatic facility. We’re a different community than they are, but I always look at the end goal, and we’ve spent more than a decade on this project right now, and bringing the public and private together with this is, I think, the way that we’re going to move it forward.”
The county recently applied for a pre-design grant with the Chimacum school property in mind, Brotherton said.
“We entered into an interlocal agreement with the Chimicum School District regarding the property, which is the target for the facility,” McCauley said. “Should the project move ahead, we would enter into the long-term lease agreement. They committed to site control, which was a requirement for the grant that we applied for.”
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
