SEQUIM — July is the target date for the reopening of the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center, according to a YMCA board member.
“We have said July,” Gary Huff, Olympic Peninsula YMCA board member, told those attending a Wednesday board meeting for the facility known as SARC.
“If it has to go to September, OK, we may have to, but we hope July, but we’re not in total control of that.”
Since the facility at 610 N. Fifth Ave. suspended services Oct. 30, active collaboration to ink an agreement between the SARC commissioners and YMCA board members has continued.
Under the developing agreement, SARC commissioners would be the landlord of the facility as elected representatives while all operations would be managed by the YMCA.
“I would like to ink it [the agreement] by mid-February, but let me just say this: Have you ever gotten a straight answer from two attorneys?” Huff said.
With slightly more than $2,000 to maintain the SARC facility until an agreement is secured with a funding plan in place, SARC commissioners anticipate needing more funds in the foreseeable future, said Frank Pickering, SARC board chairman.
One possible source of funds is surplus or outdated equipment.
Pickering said that if any equipment is sold while SARC is in limbo, it will be a “minimal amount.”
While the YMCA board works to craft a lease to present to SARC commissioners, the commissioners seek to identify what they need to see from a landlord perspective, said Sherry Nagel, SARC board vice chair.
To help guide the creation of a lease agreement, the YMCA board is using as an example a similar lease between the Sammamish Family YMCA and city of Sammamish of a 60,000-square-foot facility.
“We have a couple of good examples, but we also have to put in there all the individual and legal issues around this agreement, and there’s a lot involved,” Huff said.
Other aspects of the potential agreement include the development of fundraising plans.
Already, Huff reports having talked with 46 potential donors and has identified about $60,000 so far in annual giving, as well as another $50,000 to $100,000 in capital gifts.
“What we’ve realized is start-up costs are going to be extra, over and above annual operating costs, and we figure we need at least $100,000 in fixes to the building,” he said.
Hoping to expand and enhance rehabilitation services, Olympic Medical Center officials are interested in subleasing 1,500 square feet of the SARC facility, Huff said.
“They are offering $60,000 a year to do that,” he said.
Another lingering piece since the suspension of SARC that both YMCA and SARC officials plan to address is $106,000 in paid passes.
Exactly how the passes will be reimbursed hasn’t been finalized yet.
YMCA officials have said they plan to make that right.
A pivotal piece to the pending partnership between the SARC and YMCA boards is still under discussion.
Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones anticipates the county commissioners will deliberate a $731,705 grant request from the SARC commissioners Monday, Jan. 25.
The grant, which would come from the county’s Opportunity Fund, would fund a new air handling unit and improvements to the waste and water system at SARC.
“It’s critical for us moving forward to have this air handler taken care of by SARC,” said Kelly Johnson, YMCA board member, at the Opportunity Fund advisory board public hearing Dec. 18.
“I think that a piece of the puzzle is we don’t want to lease a building that has an air handler that’s at the end of its life and that we have a $731,000 bill hanging over our head because we do not have that money and we will not be successful.”
SARC Commissioner Jan Richardson has his doubts.
“I am looking out for the taxpayer,” he said.
Approval of the grant proposal first by the Economic Development Corp., then by the Opportunity Fund Advisory Board, is “flawed” because both boards made their decision based on a draft budget that not all SARC board commissioners had seen yet, including himself, he said.
“All numbers should be finalized before making big and expensive decisions,” he said. “Something is wrong there, in my opinion.”
Additionally, Richardson is concerned about the overall financial sustainability of reopening SARC.
“Over the four years I’ve spoken to other national companies about operating SARC, and they need 100,000 population to make it work,” Richardson said. “There’s only 70,000 in Clallam County.”
Although Richardson said he “doesn’t care if the YMCA manages SARC,” he doesn’t want the publicly owned center to go from one financial crisis to another.
“If they take over and for some reason can’t maintain it, SARC will never be able to open again, and that is mine and the public’s concern,” he said.
Based on early estimates, about 20 percent of the YMCA’s annual budget will rely on donations and foundations, Huff said.
“We’re spending a lot of time right now to see what can be done, and to Jan’s [Richardson] point, this is a small community, and that’s why we need so many different partners,” Huff said. “We’re getting a lot of support, though, and I think we’ll get there.”
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Alana Linderoth is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at alinderoth@sequimgazette.com.
