PORT ANGELES — City and Clallam County staff members are scurrying to sort out the paperwork needed to form the metropolitan park district that voters approved Tuesday to provide funding for the William Shore Memorial Pool.
Jim Jones, county administrator, said that the district — which follows the same boundaries as the Port Angeles School District — will be unique in the state because it will be governed by two legislative bodies, the city of Port Angeles and Clallam County.
“We had hoped not to reinvent the wheel, but in a way we are creating something that has never been done before,” Jones said.
Voters have approved the measure, which was placed on the special election ballot by the Port Angeles City Council and county commissioners, by a 2-to-1 margin, with 6,484 in favor of the proposed park district — or 67.48 percent of the 19,161 ballots mailed to voters — and 3,125 — or 32.52 percent — against it.
More votes from Tuesday’s election will be tallied today. Clallam County Auditor Patty Rosand said Thursday that the office had 807 ballots left to be counted. Those votes won’t change the result, she said.
Unique district
The district will be unique because, out of eight such districts in the state, most are governed by elected boards while the lone appointed board was named by a single legislative body.
“There is no other metropolitan district which will be governed by two legislative bodies,” Jones said.
Jones said that he has been working with county staff and Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers to prepare options for the City Council and the county commissioners to consider, once the election is certified on June 3.
“I’ve been working on this since 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, gathering data and getting this stuff ready because two legislative bodies have to be making decisions on this,” Jones said.
“We’ve got to decide what we are going to do,” Jones said.
“Kent and I have been working on getting some options together to present to our boards.”
The City Council had said that the city could no longer afford the pool’s $450,000 in expenses per year. It would have closed the pool, which has been funded by donations since April 1, on June 15 if the ballot measure had been rejected by voters.
The park district will raise property tax estimated at 15 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation on property within the boundaries of the Port Angeles School District. The levy will cost the owner of a $200,000 home — the median price of a home within the school district — about $30 a year.
Taxes will begin to be levied in April 2010. Until then, the district can borrow money, possibly from the state, to keep the pool afloat, the committee has said.
The Save the Pool PA committee had raised money to keep the pool in operation through mid-June and campaigned for people to vote in favor of the district.
“Our work is far from over, but now we will be working in more of an advisory capacity,” said Krista Winn, committee chairwoman.
There’s a possibility that the pool would have to be closed temporarily until paperwork is filed.
“We have six months to get all of this done, but we would like to get it done in 30 days,” Jones said.
Donations to the pool will keep it in operation through June 15 and then it will shut down for two weeks for its annual maintenance.
Winn, Jones and Myers said they hope it can reopen at that point as usual.
Decisions
Among the decisions will be how the staffing will be set up.
Current aquatics manager Jayna Lafferty said she plans to apply for the equivalent of her job in the new district.
“Hopefully, they don’t plan on making any big changes because I would love to stay here,” she said.
The city and county staff will meet within the next week to discuss how to proceed and what to recommend to their elected officials.
“We will know a lot more once we have that meeting, but at this point we are still not sure of many of the details,” Myers said.
First on the list are creating formation documents, governing rules and applying for funds to tie the district over until April 2010 when it can begin to collect taxes.
The governing rules will include everything from how many people will be on the board, to how many will be appointed by the city and how many by the county to the basic structure of the district.
In addition to all of the regular documents the city and county must also agree on an interlocal agreement outlining how they will cooperate with each other in running the district.
Pool users grateful
No matter how it is organized, those who use the pool were grateful the day after the election to have a reprieve.
“I come here every day to do my swim,” said Dee Perez of Port Angeles.
“I’m so happy it will stay open, because this is what keeps me going after I had knee surgery.”
The pool is also important to give children swimming lessons — especially in an area surrounded by water, said Breanna Martin, a supervisor at the pool.
“Kids have to learn to swim — they just have to,” she said.
“I’m excited and relieved because I know just about everyone who comes here — I know their names, their kids names and their dogs names.
“I don’t know where they’d go if it had to shut down.”
Sulene Krause, mother of Victoria, 6, and Charles, 9, who take swimming lessons a few times a week, agreed.
“When we heard that it might shut down, I got as many swimming lessons as possible because it is so important for them to know how to swim,” Krause said.
“I’m relieved that it will still be around for them.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
