PORT ANGELES — Now that the William Shore Memorial Pool is on solid financial ground, the next steps will be to replace the antiquated pipes and to install air-conditioning and insulation for the 50-year-old building, said Steve Burke, executive director of the pool.
Burke, who was appointed by the metropolitan parks district board in November, said the pool is paying down its debt by generating revenue from its swimming programs.
“Because we’re in strong financial shape, looking at all of these projects, we’re not looking at going back to the taxpayers at all to fund any of this,” Burke told about 80 people at a Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant on Monday.
“We can do that with the money we have now, mostly because of the increase in programing that we’re able to do to generate more revenue,” Burke said.
The Port Angeles public pool is closed this week for maintenance. It will reopen Sunday.
While most pools around the state get more than 70 percent of their revenue from levies, the William Shore Memorial Pool gets half its revenue from levies and half from its programs.
Paying for the pool
Taxpayers pay 14.85 cents per $1,000 assessed property tax valuation to the pool district — a measure voters approved in 2009.
Burke said the percentage coming from programs could reach 70 percent in coming years.
In January, programing revenue for the pool was $25,000 — more than twice the $12,000 budgeted.
“I think we still have even more room for growth,” Burke said.
“Our biggest struggle is that we’ve been running out of room at our pool to do things.”
Looking ahead, Burke said the pool eventually will have a children’s splash-and-play area and an exercise therapy pool on the same property.
“It is an old pool — 50 years — but it is in good shape, mechanically,” Burke said.
“A lot of the things are old and they need to be replaced, but they’re running.
“The piping is very old and very tenuous, and the flow is so much reduced that we just need to get it replaced because we can’t circulate the water as much as we would like to.”
Burke said the air circulation in the building is poor because there is no heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system. The old air-conditioning system corroded.
“Nowadays, they actually have products that can withstand the chlorine air that we have to recirculate,” Burke said.
An energy conservation audit found that the building is “a target-rich environment for energy improvements” because the building is not insulated, Burke said.
“Our pool is in great financial shape,” Burke said.
When the metropolitan park district was formed, it needed to borrow money to operate the pool. Levy money did not come in until the following year.
The pool was previously funded by the city of Port Angeles.
Debt payment on track
“We had to go into debt for a little bit, and we’re on track to paying off that debt at the end of this year,” Burke said.
“That will put us probably two years before we anticipated being able to pay off that debt.”
Burke said he gets calls from other pool officials and school districts from around the state asking how Port Angeles saved its pool.
He said the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association is even considering moving a district meet to Port Angeles next year because of the financial stability of the pool.
Burke said communities without pools inevitably see more drownings because fewer kids know how to swim. Lessons have been adapted to Red Cross water safety, not just swimming strokes, he said.
“We’re heading towards wanting to provide for any kid that wants to learn how to swim that we can provide for that,” Burke said.
“That’s not a revenue issue for us as a pool and for the board; it’s just a community-value issue — that we don’t lose any of our kids within our community because they couldn’t swim.”
Cherie Kidd, chairwoman of the William Shore Memorial Pool commission, said the pool is “looking sharp and doing good.”
“We opened it up to the community, and the community response was overwhelming,” said Kidd, who is also a Port Angeles City Council member.
“Thanks to the community support, this year, we are celebrating our 50th anniversary of the William Shore Memorial Pool.”
Russ Veenema, Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director, described the pool as a community success story.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
