SEQUIM — The city will provide $90,000 over the course of three years to the Olympic Peninsula YMCA should the nonprofit assume management of the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center.
City Council members present at Monday’s regular meeting — Erik Erichsen was absent — voted unanimously to approve the funding should established prerequisites be met.
The $30,000-per-year earmarked by the city is contingent upon the YMCA assuming operational control of the SARC facility and approval of SARC’s request of $760,500 from the Clallam County Opportunity Fund to replace an air handler in the facility’s pool room.
The city’s yearly payment will be drawn from its parks-restricted funds.
The exercise center at 610 N. Fifth Ave. houses the city’s only public pool.
SARC was closed indefinitely Oct. 30 due to a lack of funding.
“SARC is very important to our community,” said Mayor Candace Pratt.
“By making this small investment, the city is supporting the efforts of the coalition that has been working to reopen the facility and the YMCA to operate it for the long term.”
At the same time, “it provides the youth in Sequim another avenue for positive programs and activities, a service that the city does not have the resources to provide directly,” she said.
“The reopening of SARC is a win for the entire Sequim-Dungeness Valley community.”
Reduced memberships
The annual allotment provided by the city would be used to help pay the cost of reduced memberships provided to eligible underprivileged families, seniors and youths.
“These funds, along with generous contributions from YMCA members, other individuals and businesses will help us ensure that no one is turned away because of inability to pay the full membership rate,” Len Borchers, Olympic Peninsula YMCA acting director, said in a letter to the city dated Dec. 8.
The City Council also voted in favor of a resolution endorsing the SARC board’s request — submitted earlier this year — to Clallam County for assistance from the Opportunity Fund.
The Clallam County Opportunity Fund Advisory Board plans to arrive at a recommendation on SARC’s request when it meets at 10:30 a.m. Friday at 905 W. Ninth St., room 230, in Port Angeles.
The recommendation will be forwarded to the Board of County Commissioners, which will take up the matter at a later date.
“This would be one of the best possible uses for economic Opportunity Fund dollars,” Ted Miller, council member, said during the meeting.
“I certainly hope the county will approve it and strongly support the endorsement of it.”
The YMCA has reviewed a Sequim-area market study conducted in October by Strategic Research Associates of Spokane and is preparing a management contract to submit to the SARC board in the near future, Borchers has said.
The city of Sequim, YMCA, SARC, Clallam County, Olympic Medical Center, Sequim School District and private donors provided money for the $36,000 feasibility study and are working together on the YMCA-SARC management proposal.
The study was designed to gauge public interest in a YMCA-SARC partnership.
Sixty-nine percent of the Sequim-area residents surveyed were in favor of a YMCA-SARC partnership, according to the research firm.
Upon approval of the contract, YMCA would assume management of day-to-day operations, while the SARC board would remain intact and could call for tax levies in the future if needed, Frank Pickering, SARC board chair, has said.
During the transition phase, renovations would begin at the facility and would need to be completed before it reopened to the public.
Renovations would take at least three months to complete, YMCA officials have said.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
