Survey Finds that County Residents Strongly Favor a New Aquatics Center

[caption id align="alignnone" width="4032"]

Currently, the only public pool in Jefferson County is at the YMCA in Port Townsend. Photo by Scott France.   [/caption]

News by Scott France

Jefferson County residents strongly support a new aquatics center, according to a survey conducted by the JeffCo Aquatic Coalition (JAC).

Of the survey responses received from 2,951 full or part-time residents representing 5,898 people in their households, 55% rated a new public aquatic facility as “very important,” while 20% rated it “somewhat important.” The survey tally represents approximately 18% of the population of the county according to JAC.

“I was impressed with the effort made by JeffCo Aquatic Coalition and other community organizers to achieve such a high response rate for this survey,” Jefferson County Commissioner Heather Dudley-Nollette said.

A coalition of organizations, including The Jefferson County government, Jefferson Healthcare, YMCA, JeffCo Aquatics Coalition, City of Port Townsend, Port Townsend School District, and Port of Port Townsend, conducted the survey to learn more about the current use of aquatic facilities in the county and gather data on the county residents' desires in a public aquatic facility.

The survey launched a two-month run Feb. 1 after the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) formally selected a property in Port Hadlock at the Chimacum Creek primary school near the county library as the preferred site. This site was chosen based on its geographic location as approximately 7,000 more county residents live within a 20-minute drive of this site than of the Mountain View YMCA facility in Port Townsend.

“The BOCC had scheduled a hearing on April 14 to create a PFD, but canceled that morning when the BOCC learned that it wouldn’t receive a $250,000 Local Community Project request from the state legislature that it had earmarked to support the PFD’s work.”

Three JAC members presented findings of the survey to the BOCC on April 7.

The number of respondents who said that they would engage in aquatic activities at a new aquatic center in Port Hadlock more than once a week, roughly doubled to about 31%. An even higher number, 33%, said that they would engage in non-aquatic activities.

The facility features that respondents said that they would most use were a hot tub, a sauna, open swim, and lap swim. The least popular uses were synchronized swimming, lifeguard training, adult swim lessons, and sports leagues.

Citing the failed efforts of the City of Port Townsend to develop a funding path to build a replacement aquatics center to replace the aging Mountain View YMCA facility, Diane McDade of JAC, said, “The real issue is cost.”

McDade said that the JAC is pursuing a facility that would have a lap swim tank and a warmer water tank for children and elderly with a zero entry feature for those who have difficulty using a ladder to enter the pool. She said that this type of facility could likely be built for approximately $25 million, perhaps using modular building materials. A primary reason that an effort by the City of Port Townsend to build an aquatic and recreation center two years ago failed is that its cost was considered high at $37 million.

Of the respondents, 61.5% said that they would support an increase in sales tax of $.20 per $100 (excluding groceries and prescriptions) to fund a portion of the construction of an aquatic and recreation center in Port Hadlock, while 27.5% said they would oppose it. Eleven percent said they needed more information to decide.

The next phase of the process is that the county will form a public facilities district (PFD) to oversee the project as it moves forward.  The BOCC had scheduled a hearing on April 14 to create a PFD, but canceled that morning when the BOCC learned that it wouldn’t receive a $250,000 Local Community Project request from the state legislature that it had earmarked to support the PFD’s work. “We need to sharpen our pencils and devise another approach,” Board Commissioner Heidi Eisenhauer said.

On the critical issue of funding the facility with the sales tax increase, Dudley-Nollette said, “Whether to bring this project to a vote of the people is one of the most complex decisions we face because it represents so many of the issues that divide us right now. At the end of this, we need to decide whether this is the right project in the right place - to center our focus on the health and well-being of our community, from youth to elders. And it presents sensitive questions about who should be asked to pay for that goal and who will benefit. Ultimately, those answers are up to the people.”

An earlier version of this article had a wrong number of survey replies, an attribution of advocacy attributed to the wrong group, and a lower cost for the completed aquatic center.