Aquatic center revising shower voucher policy

Published 1:30 am Thursday, May 14, 2026

PORT ANGELES — The Shore Aquatic Center board is fine-tuning a policy for its shower voucher program, which has been renamed the Community Hygiene Access Program.

“Having changed the name to the Community Hygiene Access Program, it gives the impression we’re providing more than just a shower,” Director Ryan Amiot said during the board meeting Tuesday afternoon. “I want to work with organizations to put something together so we can get people a towel, a bar of soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste. It doesn’t have to be extremely complicated, just a kit.”

The idea came to Amiot while he was discussing the existing shower voucher program — which allows community organizations to hand out vouchers to people who need a shower but can’t afford admittance to the aquatic center — with his family, he said.

All of the items would be donated, Amiot said, and the aquatic center would provide the towels.

“If you do include a towel as part of that, would we at the pool ask them to drop off the towel in the dirty bin so they can be washed and reused?” board commissioner LaTrisha Suggs asked. “The towel would be for the purpose of the hygiene program, and I wouldn’t want to contribute to things needing to be picked up in the community. I do want us to cognizant of that.”

The center has washers and dryers and does laundry several times a day, so laundering additional towels used through the hygiene program would not be a strain on staff, Amiot said.

When board commissioner Mark Hodgson asked if the towels could be a safety or health concern for the general public, Amiot said no, that the cleaning at the center would make the towels appropriate for use with other aquatic center patrons.

During the meeting, the commissioners discussed other changes they would like made to the draft policy, which can be found on page 13 of the agenda packet at tinyurl.com/PDN-Hygiene-Policy.

The draft policy includes a section on monitoring and reporting, stating center staff will track program usage by including the number of vouchers redeemed, participating organizations and an operational impacts or incidents.

Suggs requested that vouchers be color-coded based on what organization they are distributed to so the center will know from which organization people received the vouchers.

Suggs then took issue with the phrasing included under the suspension or termination section of the draft policy which reads, “The Governing Board may suspend or terminate the program at any time based on: Operational concerns, legal or regulatory issues, community impact, alignment with organizational priorities.”

Suggs was concerned the public could use the “community impact” phrasing to start stigmatizing and producing a fear response toward the program. She stated the public can make comments to the board about anything during meetings, so it should not be included in the official policy.

“I want to highlight a couple of things in this because it’s important to me,” board commissioner Mike French said. “The program is intended to operate at little or no cost to the facility and during low-use times, so I’m against anything that makes the program more complicated or complex.”

French stated Amiot, or the executive director, would be an appropriate person to approve participating organizations rather than putting them through an application process that goes to the board.

With those changes in mind, the board plans to take a look at another revised version of the policy during its June meeting.

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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.