PORT ANGELES — The five William Shore Memorial Pool District commissioners have approved a new loan arrangement with Clallam County that comes with a lower interest rate than they had originally agreed upon.
The commissioners of the metropolitan park district voted unanimously Tuesday to pay back the county for its costs with an interest rate tied to the state’s municipal loan pool rather than the previously accepted 2.85 percent interest rate on the loan of $750,000.
The state’s loan pool, which isn’t fixed, sits at 1.5 percent.
Commissioners Chapman and Doherty recused themselves from the vote because they also sit on the Clallam County commission.
Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones proposed the change because he said the county had trouble coming up with appropriate contractual language since such an arrangement between a metropolitan park district and county is unprecedented in the state.
“We didn’t find anything that was even close,” he said.
Warrants allow the park district essentially to take a loan from the county on each bill.
The commissioners haven’t ruled out taking the $750,000 loan if the county can come up with the appropriate language for a contract.
The park district needs loans, whether through a loan agreement or warrant because it won’t receive revenue from a yet-to-be-determined property tax levy until April.
It would have about a year to pay off the warrants.
Jones said it is typical for the county to issue warrants for other junior taxing districts, such as school districts.
“This is not a huge burden on our treasurer’s office,” he said.
Park district accountant Charlie McClain said it was too early to tell how much the change in interest will save the public entity.
The agreement allows the park district to pay about $83,000 in bills it has accrued since it formed June 3. That includes $27,920 in costs for operating the pool.
A tax levy affecting all property owners within the boundaries of the park district, which is the same as the Port Angeles School District, will be set in November.
Other decisions
Also at the meeting, the commissioners approved bylaws, eliminated higher fees for non-city residents and voted to leave unchanged all use agreements with the school district or Port Angeles Swim Club.
That avoided, for now, a 10-fold increase in user fees for the school district’s swim and dive teams.
The school district’s costs have been low, $7 per event or about $3.50 per hour, because it has an agreement with the city of Port Angeles that allows the two public entities to share facilities at little or no cost.
Since that agreement does not exist with the park district, Port Angeles Aquatics Manager Jayna Lafferty proposed changing fees for the school district to $35 per hour for practices and $40 per hour for swim meets.
Lafferty said those rates would be slightly under the industry standard.
She remains the pool administrator because, for now, the park district is contracting management of the pool to the city.
Proposed changes with the swim club’s agreement to use the pool involved lane use but not fees.
The commissioners decided to hold off any changes until they speak with the school district and swim club and have a citizen advisory committee in place.
The park district is still accepting applications, which can be found at the Clallam County Clerk’s office in Suite 104 of the courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St.
The other commissioners are Port Angeles City Council members Dan Di Guilio and Cherie Kidd and former Save the Pool PA election coordinator Gary Holmquist.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
