(9/13/2019; CAMAS, WA.)
$72 million dollars is a substantial sum by anyone’s metric.
You can build a lot of things with $72 million dollars.
Doc Harris Stadium is a well known Friday night hotspot in Camas- home to the highly successful Camas Papermakers Football Team. It seats 4000 people and cost $7 million to construct in 2010.
$72 million would buy you 10 of those.
Lacamas Athletic Club has 3 pools, including an 8-lane, 25 meter competition facility. They also have three weight/cardio rooms, a full size gymnasium, aerobics room, spin cycle room, crossfit area, climbing wall, sauna, hottub, and childcare facilities. It was recently offered to the City of Camas for $5 million. City Councilors passed.
$72 million would buy you 14 of those.
For many resident taxpayers, the concept of spending $72 million on a single aquatics facility in Camas seems, well.... excessive. Some have questioned the actual legitimacy of the estimates themselves, wondering how something like the proposed Camas Aquatic Center could cost so much. But a recent analysis of costs and benefits from similar aquatic facilities near Camas, suggests that their concerns might not be unfounded.
In 2007, the 81,000 square foot, award winning Firstenburg Center was constructed at a cost to Vancouver taxpayers of $17 million. That’s around $21 million in today’s dollars. It contains a large leisure pool with slides, lap lanes, a lazy river, and water-park features. It also houses a complete fitness center, gymnasium, climbing wall, public meeting areas, and childcare facilities.
The entire Firstenburg Center cost $17 million. $72 million could buy you 4 of them.
The brand new Chehalem Aquatic and Fitness Center opened last year in Newberg, OR. On top of all the features of Firstenburg, this facility also sports one of the most impressive 8-lane, 50 meter Olympic sized pools in the PNW. It has a full digital timing system, and seats almost 800 people in the stands. It’s simply an amazing competitive swimming facility.
Newberg residents paid $19.9 million for all of it.
$72 million could get you 3 of those- with $12 million left over for some roundabouts, firefighters, policemen, and Crown Park bathrooms.
The Salem, Oregon YMCA is soon to begin construction on their new 51,000 square foot Aquatics and Fitness Center, after receiving a $7 million construction loan and $12 million in lottery bonds, authorized by the Oregon Legislature last July. Originally, proponents wanted a 69,000 square foot facility with two pools, but scaled their plans back to save an extra $6 million in construction costs.
The privately funded Salem YMCA is spending $19 million on their entire project. How many of those could $72 million buy?
Regardless, proponents of the massive $78 million Camas pool bond insist that taxpayers must authorize $78 million this November, to build..... something. Somewhere. But why isn’t the number $17 million? Or $19 million? Why is the ask $72 million? Why would our construction costs exceed those of neighboring communities by 400%?
“But don’t worry. Have faith,” supporters of the project say. “Just give us permission to spend 78 million taxpayer dollars NOW, and we’ll figure out all the rest THEN...” Can an already overburdened Camas tax base really afford that kind of risk, when other local facilities of equal magnitude have been completed for 1/4 of the proposed $72 million price tag?
Considering that the replacement cost for a brand new Crown Park swimming facility was only $2.2 million, the proposed $78 million bond could buy us.... yep.... 35 of those.
Just think of the banner across Main Street.
Camas, Washington- Swimming Pools Capital of the World!
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