UPDATED 11/1/2019
Selah, Washington is a small rural community in central Washington, just north of the Yakima city limits. In 2015, voters within the Selah school district approved a $6.2 million bond to finance their new aquatic center to replace the aging one in a local park. Not $72M, but $6.2M- complete with a beach entry leisure pool, lazy river, water slides, a new pool house, and an 8-lane 25 yard competition pool.
But delays forced the city to scale back the project as construction costs increased. The City planners and resident taxpayers disputed issues such as having a final design and operations plan BEFORE the City committed to supporting the pool's construction and operation. The privately owned Selah Dolphins Swim Team thought the future of their team was in jeopardy when City Administrator Don Wayman suggested closing the old pool at Wixson Park, an aging pool that was said to be too expensive to maintain.
In late July of this year, the Selah Aquatic Center finally celebrated its grand opening and ribbon cutting. It was open exactly 1 month. Now, it is closed- and likely unable to reopen again unless taxpayers come to the rescue with an operational loss tax levy.
Some people in Selah are still scratching their heads as to why construction on a brand new aquatic center in Selah even broke ground, without the money to operate it. But, Kelliann Ergeson with the Selah Parks and Recreation Service Board said given the circumstances, it was most strategic to do it this way.
“We were far better to get underway with construction, thereby preserving the value of those tax dollars. We know that your money tends to buy less overtime, and costs of construction have been going up," said Ergeson. Sound familiar?
So the City placed a Maintenance and Operations tax levy on the August 6 ballot that would ask homeowners to pay $0.15/$1000 of their home's value per year, for six years. This is on top of the construction bond tax they were already paying to build the pool. City officials claimed that if the bond measure failed to pass, the future of the aquatic center would be in jeopardy.
“Swimmers can still enjoy the newly opened pool for the remainder of this year’s season thanks to the generous support of many community members,” Ergeson said. “However, future seasons are in doubt without a source of operational funding.”
One option is to shutter the pool and let it sit empty next year. Another is to find donors and other sources of funding to keep the center going for another abbreviated season until a levy can be passed.
Let that sink in. Selah's brand new aquatic center was open for 1 month. Now, it won't reopen again unless taxpayers approve new taxes to pay for it. The construction costs for the Camas Aquatic Center are 10 times higher than those in Selah. The operational costs for the Camas Aquatic Center (over $3 million/year) are almost 10 times higher than those in Selah.
Over budget, out of money, and broke. 30 days after ribbon cutting. The fact that taxpayers said no to an additional operations loss tax levy is courageous, but likely unsustainable. How long can taxpayers drive by their brand new pool that is closed until further notice- before they succumb and give in to more taxes? Their neighbors in Corvallis know the answer already.
(Originally published 10/15/2019)