SEQUIM — The Sequim City Council has postponed a decision on whether it will ask the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center to halt a petition drive to place a measure to create a metropolitan park district on the Aug. 4 ballot.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 2,680 signatures out of a goal of 3,500 had been collected through volunteer efforts, according to Virginia O’Neil, spokeswoman for the citizens committee.
The Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center (SARC) citizens group has a May 1 deadline for turning over the signatures to the county auditor. If a sufficient number are valid, the auditor would place an election on the Aug. 4 ballot.
The Sequim City Council considered a proposal to urge SARC, which is faced with dwindling reserves, to work with the city to find funding through 2017 and allow the city to place a “broad-based” metropolitan park district measure on the 2016 ballot.
On Monday night, all council members present — Mayor Candace Pratt was absent — elected to postpone the decision following a salvo of comments made by residents opposed to the proposed resolution.
The resolution will be considered again April 13 or April 27.
The metropolitan park district proposed by the city would include input from recreational interests that include tennis and pickle ball players, the Sequim School District, the senior center, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, Sequim Family Advocates, softball, bicycling, Little League and garden club members — among others.
“I do think that I want more time to look at this resolution,” said Councilwoman Laura DuBois.
“I think it should be brought back at our next council meeting, and if there were wording changes that would be more suitable. . . we could reword some things.”
Most of the 17 who spoke to the council opposed the city’s resolution.
“I am here to ask you not to sign this resolution,” O’Neil told the council.
“This resolution clearly pits one entity against another, and the city appears to be trying to thwart SARC’s efforts to secure stable funding.”
SARC, a facility at 610 N. Fifth Ave., that includes exercise equipment and the city’s only public pool, is currently scheduled to run out of funding December 2016.
O’Neil also questioned why the council chose to bring up the issue of forming a metropolitan park district at the same time as SARC’s signature drive.
“Now that SARC has taken the initiative, you are determined to take away their opportunity,” she said.
“That has nothing to do with pools or parks. That is playing politics.”
SARC’s “decision to pass the resolution urging a citizens’ petition was a well-thought-out deliberate decision based on advice from many quarters,” added Frank Pickering, SARC Board President.
Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict, who was not present in representation of his elected office but instead as a member of the executive board of the citizens’ group, also asked the council to vote no.
“It is my feeling that your proposal [to] put it off for a year and a half will take them from the dire straits they are in [and] put SARC into an untenable position,” he said.
Ken Stringer, a resident of the proposed district — which mirrors the Clallam County portion of the Sequim School District — said the city had discussed implementing a metropolitan park district to fund parks and recreation a few years ago “and have apparently chosen to do nothing about it.
“With respect, neither SARC nor the other parks and recreation facilities within this district would be facing the current situation had the City Council . . . acted. Instead, for whatever reason, the proverbial can was kicked down the road.”
City Manager Steve Burkett said that the city had indeed discussed the formation of a metropolitan park district in 2010, followed by a survey in 2011.
“At the time we were in a recession/depression, and I think the council felt it probably wasn’t a good time to ask for more taxes,” he said.
Burkett appealed to “the SARC supporters and folks in the community to not accuse each other of not providing leadership.”
He said tht both are aiming for the same goal: “Keep SARC open, have good parks and recreation services for the community and submit something to the voters so they can decide.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
