SEQUIM — Two metropolitan park district proposals are in the works for registered voters in the area defined by the Sequim School District.
The Sequim City Council on Monday night endorsed efforts to place a “broad-based” city metropolitan park district on the February 2016 ballot. The district would encompass the same Clallam County area as the Sequim School District.
Meanwhile, supporters of a metropolitan park district to support solely the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center, known as SARC, say they have enough signatures on a petition to spark an election on their measure this coming August.
Since early March, a citizens group has gathered signatures on a petition to place the SARC supported measure on the Aug. 4 ballot.
As of Tuesday, more than 4,400 signatures — greater than the goal of 3,500 — had been collected through volunteer efforts, according to Virginia O’Neil, spokeswoman for the citizens committee working on the SARC drive.
The signatures will be submitted to the auditor’s office today at 11:30 a.m., O’Neil said.
If a sufficient number are valid, the auditor will place the measure on the August ballot and call for a special filing period for persons interested in running for one of the five open positions on the metropolitan park district commission.
The SARC metropolitan park district would encompass the same area as that envisioned by city officials.
“It is perhaps possible legally to have two of them, but it doesn’t make any sense in practical terms,” said City Manager Steve Burkett on Tuesday.
The City Council voted 6-0, with Councilman Ted Miller absent for medical reasons, to start the process of creating a metropolitan park district to fund a variety of parks and recreation facilities and activities.
The resolution “does not establish a ballot proposal,” Burkett noted.
Rather it establishes the “process to consider the formation of a metropolitan park district to broadly address all parks and recreation needs” within the district, Burkett said.
City employees now will gather input from such recreational interests as tennis and pickle ball players, the Sequim School District, the senior center, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, Sequim Family Advocates and softball, bicycling, Little League and garden club members, among others.
The SARC measure, for which supporters began gathering petition signatures in early March, would support only the facility at 610 N. Fifth Ave., which has exercise equipment and the city’s only public pool.
“It is time for the voters to vote,” said Frank Pickering, chairman of the SARC board, “and we would have appreciated it if the City Council had supported the effort because SARC is in serious financial condition, as we have said many times.”
SARC officials expect to run out of money in December 2016, and say they would be forced to close the facility’s doors if new funding is not found.
Burkett said that the SARC proposal is too narrowly focused.
The SARC measure is “one that hasn’t had much time for community discussion and hasn’t involved other stake holders in addition to SARC,” Burkett said.
SARC supporters had asked the City Council to table their resolution in deference to that proposed by SARC before Monday’s vote.
Councilman Ken Hays doesn’t see the city action as a challenge.
“It is just what I think is appropriate and is correct,” he said.
“I think we are entitled to have that difference of opinion.”
The resolution endorsed by the city “is not aimed at derailing the current effort” by SARC, “or pulling the rug out from under SARC,” Burkett added.
“It is aimed at having this broad discussion, and if the current effort that is being led by the petition drive isn’t successful, then this is what we would recommend in terms of trying to find funding for SARC and other broader kinds of facilities and services.”
Said Councilwoman Genaveve Starr during the meeting: “It is a good resolution and I think we have worked hard to [get] this metropolitan park district going with all the stakeholders.”
The council also approved working with the three Clallam County Commissioners to develop an interlocal agreement outlining a specific operational and capital plan to be implemented if voters approve formation of the district.
It also said that the city will work with SARC to find short-term solutions to fund the organization through 2017 and encourages SARC to place a one-year levy on the ballot in November 2015 for short-term operational funding.
Once voters approve a metropolitan park district, it is permanent.
The board elected at the same time that a district is approved can levy up to 75 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation in property taxes without putting the tax before voters.
The SARC petition specifies that the five commissioners would implement a tax levy of 12 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.