Informational forum held for Dayton community pool

DAYTON–The Friends of the Pool held a public forum workshop in an effort to seek input as to the type of swimming facility the community would support at the Dayton Elementary multi-purpose room September 28.

The Friends of the Pool have been moving forward with facilitating a path toward establishing a community aquatic center. The city and county have been without a pool since 2018, when it was closed due to structural and operational issues. The Friends of the Pool has paid over $25,000 for a [qualified] survey of the community, and, according Friends of the Pool Co-Chair Lisa Naylor, showed the residents do want a pool and are willing to pay for it.

Friends of the Pool Co-Chair Dianne McKinley attended remotely due to illness and said the plans for a new pool are "coming to fruition" and the group is asking for feedback from the community on what they want for a swimming pool.

The agenda called for attendees to break into working groups to make wish lists of what features the pool should have. Once finished, they posted them on the wall and shared with the larger group where everyone selected, placed a blue dot sticker next to their top ten features. Some groups had overlapping ideas.

To begin to make this a reality, and out of the need for cohesiveness and structure, the idea of creating a Columbia County Joint Metropolitan Park District (MPD) came out of a focus group of local stakeholders and interested county residents. It is through the group's efforts that they were able to get a proposed Metropolitan Parks and Recreation District on the November ballot which, if approved, will need five Commissioners.

On the November ballot, the public will then cast their vote for or against the creation of this district, and, in addition, one candidate for each of the five non-geographical districts to sit on the Board of Commissioners. The positions would have varying terms determined by the number of votes received. If the proposition for the district does not pass, then the votes for commissioners will be null and void. If the Columbia County Joint Metropolitan Park District (which is unfunded) is affirmed and created, the district will not be eligible to request a special levy until 2024; and when a special levy is requested, it must receive voter approval.

The position on the ballot to create the MPD is solely for the purpose of the district which will be unfunded. "There is no tax enacted just because the Columbia County Joint Metropolitan Park District is created," said Friends of the Pool Co-Chair Dianne McKinley.

Once the district has been created, the purpose of the governing board will be to set up policies and procedures, and will hold monthly public meetings, thereafter. "The citizen's input is vital to defining what they want for an aquatic facility; then the determination of cost and how to pay for it will be assessed," said McKinley.

When the aquatic center is decided, then a special levy will be presented to the community for their vote for operation and maintenance cost. "We must be realistic about what we can afford and what we can take care of," McKinley added.

In summary; there will be four steps involved:

-The creation of the park district;

-The establishment of the board (which is on the same ballot as the park district);

-The formation of bylaws, policies and procedures by the board;

-Develop a plan for an aquatic center.

In addition, and in general, governmental agencies are reluctant to award grants to governmental entities with taxing authority, so maintaining the Friends of the Pool organization as a 501(c) (3) will help qualify the organization for grants for expenditures such as the construction of a pool, CEO of the Walla Walla YMCA Karen Hedine told the group assembled for the Community Forum on September 28.

It was suggested by Seth Murdock that a limited purpose metropolitan park district for just the pool instead. According to MRSC, "A metropolitan park district may also be formed for a limited purpose that identifies specific public parks and/or recreational facilities (such as specific swimming pools, playfields, or public parks).

A limited purpose MPD must establish its levy rate within the initial ballot measure. The rate becomes the maximum levy rate until a future ballot measure is placed before the voters for a levy rate lift." It also states, "When a proposition for formation of a metropolitan park district is limiting its purpose, taxing powers and/or being formed for specifically identified facilities, the ballot proposition must specifically identify those public parks or recreational facilities to be funded and state the maximum regular levy rate."

A specific purpose is not listed on the ballot and therefore can and will not be a limited purpose district if the current measure is passed.

The presenters provided some updates and valuable information. YMCA Aquatics Director Erica Miller offered some perspective of the need for water safety since during COVID drowning more than doubled because of the lack of swimming lessons and supervised swimming. She talked about their success using The Red Cross for safety courses and lifeguard training for the several pools they oversee in the region.

In addition, Miller suggested having a pool design where less lifeguards are needed to adequately supervise swimmers and noted that the Milton-Freewater pool is a good model because of the zero-depth kid's area being near to the deeper sections. They have dividers between the different depth sections. Having less lifeguards cuts the cost. She also talked about the things that bring in money like offering concessions and programming.

Overall, the design concept suggested by Miller was popular along with swim blocks for a swim team and swimming lanes, also for laps, as well as water slides and diving boards.