PORT TOWNSEND — The School Board will likely help cover the bill for operating Port Townsend’s public swimming pool, but first board members want a guarantee.
“I think there is a number of reasons that this is a good idea,” board member Bobby DuBois said of the district sharing a portion of the pool’s operational costs through the end of the year.
“I just don’t want to commit and then find out that everyone else has walked away.”
The board agreed in principle on Monday night that it would send $5,000 to the city of Port Townsend to keep Jefferson County’s only public pool from closing.
However, board members said they would only make the matter official under the condition that the city would agree to keep the pool open through December.
Superintendent Tom Opstad said he will meet with city officials this week to make sure they could provide such a guarantee.
City Manager David Timmons has asked the school district, Jefferson County government, Jefferson Healthcare hospital, the citizens group Make Waves! and the City Council to each commit $5,000 to defray the overrun costs of the municipal swimming pool.
The pool is located on the Mountain View Elementary School campus, 1919 Blaine St.
The estimated cost to keep the pool open from September until the end of December is about $35,000, which is above the amount originally budgeted by the city.
The soaring cost of utilities to heat the pool is the main reason for the shortfall.
As part of an agreement between the city and the school district, the pool is operated by the city on property owned by the school district.
The city is responsible for paying to keep the pool running, but any bills from utility companies go directly to the school.
The current agreement has the city paying up to $72,000 of the pool’s operating costs each year. Anything over that sum has usually been covered by the school district.
This year, the overage was considered to be far too much for either agency to absorb, prompting Timmons to request the $5,000 each from the community partners.
“We’re already on the hook for the costs of the pool, so it’s almost pain-free to go ahead and pay the $5,000,” DuBois said.
“We just need a commitment from the city that the pool will remain open.”
Board member Rita Bebee expressed her frustration in a spirited synopsis of the situation.
“They got their one percent-plus increase,” Bebee said referring to a recent levy-lid lift approved by voters for the city library.
“Now they need to run their city or get off the pot.”
Revenues from the levy lid lift for the library will free money in the city general fund for operation of parks and recreational facilities — including the pool.
However, that money will not be collected until next April.
“When they see that increase, then they need to pay this [$5,000] back and pay for their own [facilities],” Bebee said.
In the end, Bebee agreed that the district should help keep the pool open but wished the School Board could spend their time on in-house problems and not the problems of the city.
“If we could spend one percent of the time on the bond as we have on the pool we could make some progress,” she said.
“But that’s it, next item.”
Karen Nelson, a member of Make Waves!, said the citizens group will be forming an ad hoc committee of private citizens to raise its portion of the requested $5,000.
“I have every expectation we will be able to raise that,” Nelson told the School Board.
“We will be keeping the money in an escrow account until the end of the year and pay out contingent on the city keeping the pool open.”
Nelson said the plan is to ask 50 prominent Jefferson County residents for a $100 donation each.
Nelson also said she was encouraging the school district, the county and the hospital to submit funds to the pool as well.
On Oct. 6, county commissioners gave serious consideration to a request from Port Townsend.
“We really have to think where this money comes from,” said Commissioner David Sullivan, D-Cape George, citing the possibility of pulling it from about $1.5 million in county reserves, or elsewhere in the county budget.
No decision has been made by commissioners as of this week.
The hospital also has made no decision, either.
Opstad said he was looking into ways to decrease the cost of operating the pool in the years to come.
Among the options are operating the boilers in different ways, separating the pool from the main building’s operations and switching to electric heating options.
“It’s an unknown how long that facility will be there,” Opstad said.
“We don’t want to make a short term fix that we don’t see a return on.”
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Jefferson County reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
