In a perfect world, with sunshine and lavender aplenty, the Dungeness Valley already would have a broad, user-based Metropolitan Park District. It would make good economic and practical sense to partner with the county and City of Sequim, along with other users of recreational activities throughout the district, like the senior center, pickleball, tennis and soccer players and others. But we do not live in a perfect world right now.
The Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center is about to go broke and will close if we don’t have a mechanism to increase taxes in the district this year.
The SARC board of directors is asking the community to support the formation of a Metropolitan Park District. This action requires signatures on a petition to place a referendum on the August ballot. Citizens for SARC are well on their way to submitting the 3,500 required signatures to the county auditor by the May 8 deadline.
The benefits of forming a Metro would be immediate. It would give the newly elected board the authority to levy a small tax of 12 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to property owners in the district. This would prevent SARC from closing its doors in 2016. Passage of the referendum would require 50 percent-plus-one to pass and would not have to be voted on by the voters every few years. This is unlike the fire district, library, hospital and school district which periodically have to ask the voters to support their activities by running a levy.
Unfortunately, the City of Sequim has suddenly pulled out the stops to derail our plan and is advocating for a broader and more expensive Metropolitan Park District. While we do understand the need to have a more inclusive Metropolitan Park District in the Dungeness Valley in the future, we don’t believe the city should be working against SARC’s efforts at this late date.
This only serves to confuse the voters and the ultimate result likely would be that neither effort would pass muster. The city has made no financial commitment to SARC and yet they say that SARC or the city should be able to find the money to keep the doors open thus preventing its closure next year.
Where will they get the funds to do that and why aren’t they sharing that information with SARC if they believe it to be true?
Is this a rob Peter to pay Paul suggestion?
While we are appreciative of the city’s letter of support to the county for funding SARC’s request for Opportunity Grant Funds to purchase a new air handler for the pool, that money will not ease our cash flow problems.
It can only be used for capital expenses, not day-to-day operational costs. It will however, allow us to begin the replacement process of the air handler sooner than anticipated and with a shorter time frame for installation.
SARC has existed for over 30 years and serves the entire Dungeness Valley community with a population of 30,000 residents. There is no single public mixed-use facility of this type in the United States that balances its budget without voter support. Our position is to continue on our path toward victory on Aug. 4 to form our own Metropolitan Park District, with five newly elected commissioners, which would allow SARC to remain open with no fear of closure.
In the meantime, we encourage the city and the county to work together with stakeholders, and the community at large, to develop a reasonable and affordable proposal to put forward to the voters in the future.
At that point, the dust will have settled with SARC’s financial crisis and the community may be ready to pay for something larger.
We encourage all eligible citizens who reside within the school district boundaries to consider running for one of the five open seats on the new Metropolitan Park Board.
The county auditor will call a “special filing period” after our signatures have been validated. SARC needs your help. What happens next will be up to the voters.
We appreciate the outpouring of support we have received and are counting on you to vote Yes on Aug. 4.
Susan Sorensen is chair for the Citizens for SARC group.
