SEQUIM — The Sequim School District is giving $5,000 to the Olympic Peninsula YMCA to offset the cost of a feasibility study to determine if the nonprofit organization should take over management of the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center.
The exercise center at 610 N. Fifth Ave., known as SARC, closed Friday.
SARC board members voted last month to close the facility, which includes Sequim’s only public pool, because of a lack of funds.
The city of Sequim, YMCA, SARC, Clallam County, Olympic Medical Center and private donors also are providing money for the $36,000 feasibility study, which was completed last month.
Later this month, YMCA officials plan to present the SARC board with a business plan created using results from the survey, Kyle Cronk, YMCA executive director, has said.
Center could reopen
If an agreement can be reached, the center could reopen, Frank Pickering, SARC board chairman, has said.
The Sequim School Board voted 4-1 to provide the funding Monday night.
The $5,000 will be provided through the district’s educational programs and operations levy funds, said Brian Lewis, Sequim School District business manager.
Board member Mike Howe voted against the measure because “I don’t feel like we went to our voters and asked them to use levy dollars for this type of thing,” he said, adding that he also was worried about the size of the donation.
“We don’t have the budget that the county has or the Olympic Medical Center. And yet we were contributing at an equal value.”
He said there are other needs for that money in the classroom.
“For those reasons, I chose to oppose” the measure, Howe said, “not because I am opposed to SARC.”
The majority of the board chose to provide the funding.
“It is not just a SARC issue,” said Beverly Horan, board president.
“It truly is a Sequim community issue. We really felt that Sequim schools should support it.”
“We have an interest in finding out what is going to happen with SARC because of our swim teams that participate there,” Lewis said.
While the Sequim High School girls swim team can continue practicing at SARC through Nov. 12 thanks to anonymous donations from city residents, the boys swim and dive team will need to find a new home for the season, Lewis said.
The boys’ season starts Nov. 16.
The district currently is considering busing the boys team back and forth for practices at William Shore Memorial Pool in Port Angeles, although details are still being worked out, Lewis said.
“First of all, we are going to see how many kids sign up, because we don’t know what effect the closure of SARC is going to have on sign-ups for the program,” he said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
