SEQUIM –– Backers of the Sequim Aquatic and Recreation Center are hosting a set of meetings this week to explain the public center’s February levy request.
“We want to be here to get any facts the community wants to know,” said Susan Sorensen, chairwoman of the Citizens for SARC committee formed to back the district’s request.
Commissioners for the facility, known by the acronym SARC, voted in July to ask voters for funding for the first time since 2003.
The sessions will be in the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave., from 11 a.m. to noon Friday, from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30.
The request, if approved, is expected to generate about $416,000 for each of the next six years.
Sorensen said the money is needed to pay for replacement of aging equipment that could soon require costly repairs.
“Just like anyone else that owns a house, things have to be done”
The measure would require 60 percent approval by voters to pass.
Built with a $2 million voter-approved bond in 1988, SARC has more than 3,000 members from across the North Olympic Peninsula and draws nearly 250,000 visitors each year.
If approved, property owners within the park district would pay 12 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property value for each of the next six years.
A 12-cent levy would add about $26.04 to the annual property tax bill of the owner of a $217,000 house, the average value in the district.
SARC took in $946,355.44 in revenue last year while spending $997,661.81 on operations for a net loss of $51,306.37.
For more information, email Sorensen at citizensforSARC@gmail.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.