PORT ANGELES — Fee increases are not linked to a Nov. 7 ballot measure that, if approved, would lead to a planned expansion of the William Shore Memorial Pool.
A headline on a story on Page A1 Wednesday in the Clallam County edition incorrectly said that the pool is looking to raise fees and that a pool expansion would mean a 25-cent rate hike.
“The district board has not discussed any fee increases related to the expansion,” said Steve Burke, executive director, on Wednesday.
“I haven’t talked about it with the board… That is a board decision. They could go up and they could not go up…. It’s a different issue.”
Burke said Wednesday that “there’s a significant chance” that after a pool expansion, increased use could mean that fees go down, Burke said.
“Every year, we look at fees. A fee increase would have nothing to do with the construction.”
Burke said that while talking with a Peninsula Daily News reporter, he was discussing possibilities only and that a fee increase would be discussed separately from expansion.
If the pool is expanded, operating costs would increase by about $75,000 in the pool operating budget, which is currently $600,000, Burke said Tuesday in an interview following a presentation to the Port Angeles Business Association.
If the ballot measure for a raise in the pool’s debt limit is approved, pool commissioners then would raise property tax, now at $18 cents per $1,000 valuation, by 6 cents per $1,000 valuation in 2018. The money would fund a pool expansion. It would add about $12.80 per year to the property tax bill of the owner of a $200,000 house.
Another increase, about 4 cents per $1,000 valuation, would be necessary later to complete the expansion.
“It would be phased in,” Burke said.
The total property tax increase for the expansion would eventually be an estimated $20 annually. Wednesday’s story erroneously said that the tax would increase by about $20 per $1,000 valuation annually.
