SEQUIM — The Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center board has voted to close the facility on Oct. 30.
The closure of the exercise center at 610 N. Fifth Ave., which is known as SARC, could be temporary if a potential partnership with the Olympic Peninsula YMCA is forged.
Otherwise, said Frank Pickering, chairman of the board, the facility could be closed indefinitely.
The four board members present at a special meeting tonight at the Sequim Civic Center — the fifth member, Melinda Griffith, was absent — voted unanimously for the closure after a public comment period.
About 110 people attended the meeting.
Scott Deschenes, SARC executive director, said if the facility — which includes the city’s only public pool — were to continue operating at current levels into November, it might have gone $20,000 into the red.
Earlier this year, SARC board members had targeted September 2016 as a closure date due to lack of funds.
The 73 employees, including six on the management team and 67 part-time employees, will be out of work as of Oct. 30, according to the board vote.
Deschenes “will be talking to everybody in the morning, and I will personally be there to explain things,” Pickering said.
SARC is the “largest teen . . . employer in the county, probably,” he added.
Despite the closure, a study to gauge community interest in a proposal by the Olympic Peninsula YMCA to manage SARC continues “full steam ahead,” Kyle Cronk, YMCA CEO, said after the vote.
And SARC is “actively working to try and get that proposal on the table,” Pickering said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
