No to the Metropolitan Park District | Letter

Published 12:19 pm Tuesday, October 27, 2015

How sad is this? In their latest mailer, the proponents of Prop. 1 bring us a girl with a condition that they say needs her to swim as her only exercise. Like there are no other pools in the area. There are pools — Columbia Athletic Club, Juanita High School, Peter Kirk, Northshore YMCA, Redmond Pool, Pro sports, Bellevue Aquatic Center, Samena Pool, Lynnwood Aquatic Center, Mountlake Terrace Aquatic Center, Gold’s Gym, LA Fitness, King County Center in Federal Way and others in Redmond, Issaquah, Kent, Covington, Auburn and Renton, including school pools.

So, with all these competing pools, why do we think we’re going to keep the Kirkland facility full and paying revenue? Why do we think the area needs another aquatic center as opposed to just needing to replace the Juanita Pool? The answer is readily apparent when you see who is funding Prop. 1 – two swim teams and a swim coach. A shameless attempt to take everyone’s money for their benefit.

Like this young woman is a logical reason why we should spend $85 million dollars for a pool plus everything else anyone could add onto a pool building. Logically, we could pay for her membership at any local pool and have $84 million left over. Just taking Xylia into account, we should maybe build a pool. She is not a reason to build the other $XX million we’re being asked for.
How many homeless people could we feed, clothe or house for $85 million?

Why do we need to support the swim teams? Do we give that level of support to soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball, boxing or other sports? No we don’t. Most sports have to pay for the facilities they are using.

This measure is another one of Dave Asher’s OPM projects — other people’s money. I wouldn’t mind paying for an Olympic sized pool in the Kirkland area. It would seem best sited between Woodinville, Bothell, Redmond and Kirkland. It would seem best partnered with those cities and the school district and maybe with private enterprise.

As of right now, we’re not losing the Juanita Pool as the school district is examining how to proceed since their bond issue failed.

As of right now we have pools available in the area for kids to take summer swim lessons. We don’t have data on how many people actually pay to swim the rest of the year.

So, I have not done research on the cost of pools, but USA swimming has. On their website, they estimate the cost of building an eight-lane 50-meter pool and discuss a pool cover. Their estimate comes in under $5 million. I’m not sure if land is considered. USA swimming says the pool will pay itself off in under five years. So why do we need $85 million and unending real estate taxes?
http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscArticle.aspx?TabId=1755&mid=7716&ItemId=3570

Vote no on Prop. 1 and demand a well-reasoned bond issue to build a replacement for the Juanita Pool.