FORKS — For Barb Gronspeth, the question of another election on the Forks Aquatic Center levy isn’t an “if” or even a “when,” unless uncounted ballots put it over the top now.
It’s November or never, she said Wednesday.
“We have to have money to run the pool in 2007, and that’s our only hope,” said Gronspeth, chairwoman of the Quillayute Valley Parks and Recreation District board of directors.
Ballots counted Tuesday showed the levy was losing, 404 to 394, or 50.6 percent to 40.4 percent.
To pass, the levy needs at least 60 percent approval.
The Clallam County Auditor mailed ballots to 2,290 registered voters in the Quillayute Valley district.
That means 1,492 ballots are outstanding, although all of them may not be returned.
If all of the ballots are submitted, at least 980 must vote “yes’ to pass the measure
Throughout Clallam County, 6,205 more ballots had been received at the auditor’s office Tuesday and Wednesday but will not be tallied until Friday.
That figure does not include the contents of drop boxes from Forks and Sequim.
A rocky road to pool
If the Forks levy fails to attract sufficient support, it will become another stone in the already rocky road toward an aquatic center.
The site at the corner of Division Street and Maple Avenue was deeded to the district by the U.S. Forest Service in 1979.
After many attempts in the 1980s and ’90s failed to raise funds, voters approved a $2.9 million pool bond issue in 2000.
Voters will continue to pay taxes on the bonds through 2020.
“They will be still paying for a building that will be sitting empty if the levy doesn’t go through,” Gronspeth said.
“It’s a beautiful facility. I just don’t understand people’s thinking, that a facility of that nature could thrive on its own.”
The operations and maintenance levy would raise taxes by 98 cents per $1,000 of a home’s appraised value.
Owners of a $125,000 house would pay $147 more in their 2007 property taxes.
Donations kept pool open
The levy would produce $250,000 to maintain and operate the pool for the next two years.
Donations, grants, fundraisers, and the rent from three houses the district owns have funded the pool since it opened last summer.
It closed Sept. 7 due to a mechanical failure that affected the pool’s heating system — and because the district was out of money.
Levy backers have promised it will reopen early in 2007 if the levy is approved.
If they must go back to voters in November, Gronspeth said district directors would try different strategies from those they used in the election that ended Tuesday.
“I’d do a little bit more promoting,” she said.
“Hopefully we’ll get a promoting committee that will talk about the benefits of the pool, the sacrifices and hard work that’s gone into it so far.
“The public needs to realize this is a public facility and we have quite a lot of property involved in there.”