SEQUIM — Voters rejected a measure to create a metropolitan park district to solely fund the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center by 59.74 percent in initial primary election returns tonight.
“SARC will close. How soon? I can’t tell you,” Frank Pickering, SARC board chairman, said after election results were announced.
The measure would have provided funding for the facility at 610 N. Fifth Ave. — known by the acronym SARC — which includes the city’s only public pool.
SARC board members have said that the facility will run out of funds by December 2016.
Votes against a SARC metropolitan park district were 4,745 or 59.74 percent. Those in favor were 3,198, or 40.26 percent.
The measure needed a simple majority for passage.
“There is nothing that I know right now that would save [SARC],” Pickering said.
“We are on budget as far as expenses go. However revenue is expected to drop and we will be out of money relatively soon,” he said.
“I will have better information in the next few months.”
A total of 7,943 votes were counted tonight in the district — the same area as the Clallam County portion of the Sequim School District.
Citizens for SARC on April 29 submitted petitions with about 4,400 signatures to the Clallam County Auditor’s Office to get the measure on Tuesday’s ballot.
The measure had “recommended” a property tax levy of 12 cents or less per $1,000 of assessed property valuation to fund the facility — the same amount voters failed to approve in a SARC levy election in February.
A 12-cent annual levy would have cost the owner of a $200,000 home $24 a year to support the metropolitan park district.
And while the measure called on a new board of commissioners — elected at the same time as voter approval of the district was sought — to adhere to a 12-cent levy, they could have chosen any other value up to 75 cents in accordance with state law without further voter approval.
Once created, such a tax would have been permanent.
SARC was formed as Clallam County Parks and Recreation District 1, a junior taxing district, in 1988.
As a junior taxing district, it needed a 60 percent supermajoirty to pass levies.
The district ceased to collect taxes in early 2003 after voters did not approve several proposed levies.
Since then, SARC has relied on dwindling reserve money collected through the first 14 years of its existence.
The five candidates chosen by voters to oversee the proposed metropolitan park district are now kings — or queens — without a castle.
Here are the results:
■ Position 1 — Warren Pierce received 62.02 percent, or 2,827 votes cast, while Eckart Mildenstein received 37.98 percent, or 1,731 votes cast.
A total of 4,558 votes were cast for Position 1, not including write-ins.
■ Position 2 — Ken Stringer received 70.02 percent, or 2,749 votes cast, while Bill Wrobel — who had withdrawn from the race — received 29.98 percent, or 1,177 votes cast.
A total of 3,926 votes were cast for Position 2, not including write-ins.
■ Position 3 — Virginia O’Neal received 53.92 percent, or 2,620 votes cast; Gayle Baker received 18.69 percent, or 908 votes cast; Dick Neal received 14.65 percent, or 712 votes cast; and Paul Gruver received 12.74 percent, or 619 votes cast.
A total of 4,859 votes were cast for Position 3, not including write-ins.
■ Position 4 — Rich Bemm received 50.71 percent, or 2,349 votes cast; Susan Smith received 33.83 percent, or 1,567 votes cast; and Fritz Gruetzmacher received 15.46 percent, or 716 votes cast.
A total of 4,632 votes were cast for Position 4, not including write-ins.
■ Position 5 — Mike McAleer received 60.04 percent, or 2,987 votes cast, while Bob Anundson received 39.96 percent, or 1,988 votes cast.
A total of 4,975 votes were cast for Position 5, not including write-ins.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
