PORT ANGELES — The city won’t try to put another swimming pool or aquatic center bond issue on the ballot until the community says that’s what it wants, Mayor Karen Rogers said Wednesday afternoon.
“The community has spoken loud and clear,” she said.
“Therefore we as a city will do our best to keep the current pool operational and when the community is ready for a new pool, we’ll be ready to serve them.”
The city has been planning since at least 1999 to replace the 44-year-old William Shore Memorial Swimming Pool at 225 E. Fifth St., eyeing its life expectancy of between 25 and 40 years.
But a $13.8 million bond issue to replace the pool with an aquatic center at Third and Francis streets — owned by the city but operated by the Clallam County Family YMCA — was soundly defeated.
The bond issue would have cost the owner of a $150,000 home an estimated 72 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation, or $108 a year for the owner of a $150,000 home.
In Tuesday night’s vote count, it received only 1,195 “yes” votes, or 32.1 percent, versus 2,531 “no” votes, or 67.9 percent.
About 12,000 ballots remain to be counted, according to the Clallam County Auditor’s Office.
But Orville Campbell, a member of Friends of the Aquatic Center that supported the bond, said Tuesday night the trend was clear and the deficit was too large to overcome in subsequent ballot counts.
Rogers said resurrecting any of the committees that studied how to replace the swimming pool during the past five years was not in the immediate future.
“The committees worked very hard to do this,” she said.
“Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time for the issue to be presented and also taxpayers are upset about their increased property assessments.
“There’s a lot of concern about jobs and the economy and obviously this is not the right time for a new pool.
“This is not on next week’s meeting agenda nor will it be,” Rogers said.
