PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend Recreation Center is expected to be reopened in midsummer at the earliest.
Voters approved a 0.3-cent sales tax increase in November to pay for county services and to subsidize local recreation options.
Beginning April 1, a portion of sales tax collected in Jefferson County will go toward the maintenance and upkeep of Memorial Field and the re-opening of the recreation center at 620 Tyler St.
County Administrator Philip Morley projects the recreational fund will receive about $108,000 during 2011 but that it will not be available for that purpose until the end of June.
Parks and Recreation Director Matt Tyler hopes the center will be ready over the summer but said it will not open in time for the end of the school year.
Neither Morley nor Tyler could specify a date for the recreation center’s reopening.
“It will be as soon as possible,” Tyler said.
“It is really critical that we put this resource back into the community.”
Tyler said an 18-member Parks and Recreation Commission — which includes representatives from the city, county, schools, hospitals and other civic groups — is now being assembled and would meet sometime in April to plot a strategy for opening the center.
Tyler said the plan is to hire one full-time and one part-time staff member to staff the center, which will be open 44 hours a week.
Exact hours are undetermined, but Tyler expects it will be a combination of after-school, evenings and weekends.
“We want to provide a place for parents to drop off their kid, where there will always be someone who can supervise them,” Tyler said.
Tyler said that aside from personnel, the new funds will be used for new equipment and a paint job.
The voter-approved Proposition 1 is part of a Law and Justice Levy, which requires that 40 percent of the new revenue raised be allocated to the city.
Prior to the election, Port Townsend city officials agreed to transfer the city’s share of the new revenue to the support of Memorial Field and the Recreation Center for a three-year period.
At the end of that time, the city may choose to renew that commitment or work with the county to find new funding sources, according to material presented to the voters prior to the election.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie. bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
