Shane Ruoss Letter to the Editor - 8/23/2023

[Fun CH]

Friends of the Pool is pursuing a high-risk/high-reward strategy with the indoor aquatic center and metropolitan park district. Yet even if Proposition 1 passes, there likely will be debate for some time to come. First about the governing board appointments and then about what actually could/should be built. Those will not be easy debates. Certainly not as benign as Friends of the Pool suggests.

- Steve Oulman

there will not be a debate if thing passes. Voters will how zero say in any decision the Metropolitan Park District Commissioners make.

The non elected board commissioners will be free to do anything they want except raise the max levy rate threshold of 75 cents per thousand of assessed value. If they want more of our tax money after that threshold, the levy rate can be raised by a 60% majority vote.

That's is the only involvement from the voters if this passes.

They can issue bond debt and build anything, anywhere they want. They can pay themselves as board commissioners anything they want. We will have zero say in anything they do.

The FOP may say they have given up the power of domain however, I believe the municipalities of Twisp and Winthrop still have that power as does the State.

David thinks that they are unorganized, however they have calculated every move so far except maybe their racist remark.

I know what at least two of probable the Metropolitan Park District Commissioners are capable of. I've been shouting it from the rooftops.

They can't be trusted. I think that is clear from their actions thus far.

Perhaps I need to post the relevant public documents here that more than proves that point.

[SOulman]

This is an articulate viewpoint. I wouldn't want to have to rebut it.

Shane notes that the feasibility study estimated a Wagner pool replacement at less than half the proposed indoor aquatic center. True.

It is important to note, however, that the option presented by consultants was not simply replacing the current pool in-kind, but an expanded pool with physically separate competition lanes and a recreation area. One larger body of water, two swim areas.

The cost for an option of just replacing the current pool configuration is lower yet.

And since Shane used the cost comparison with the Winthrop fire station and the Twisp civic center, I would throw in that the present value of the mid-1990s Liberty Bell/Methow Elementary construction was about $12 million.

Friends of the Pool is pursuing a high-risk/high-reward strategy with the indoor aquatic center and metropolitan park district. Yet even if Proposition 1 passes, there likely will be debate for some time to come. First about the governing board appointments and then about what actually could/should be built. Those will not be easy debates. Certainly not as benign as Friends of the Pool suggests.

- Steve Oulman

[Fun CH]

I'm glad to see that Don published that letter.

[pasayten]

Good Letter! Factual and to the point.

[pasayten]

Not responsible

Dear Editor:

In a letter in the Aug. 9 paper, Friends of the Pool members stated that an earlier letter “implies that we are asking the public to foot the bill of building the pool. Not so!” This contradicts FOP’s own study which states “[t]he pool will likely be funded through a range of public, private, and philanthropic funding sources, but it is likely that debt issued by the MPD [Metropolitan Park District] will be a prominent source of capital.”

The upcoming ballot measure would allow tax revenues to be spent “to provide ongoing funding to develop, construct, operate, and maintain the Methow Aquatics Center and related existing and future facilities.” Those last six words are an undefined open door. They would allow this new, permanent taxing district to expand in unknown ways on the same site as the proposed $25-plus million pool complex, or elsewhere, at the discretion of future boards of commissioners without any further public votes. Voters should clearly understand this. All but one of the 23 MPDs in Washington are governed by elected boards. The governing board of commissioners of this proposed MPD will be appointed, not elected. Assurances by current pool advocates mean nothing. We are voting on the ballot language, not assurances printed in the newspaper.

A FOP-commissioned study estimated an outdoor replacement of the Wagner pool would cost less than half, or $10 million to $12 million less than the cost of the proposed indoor aquatic center, with an operational deficit of over $500,000 less per year. For comparison, $10 million to $12 million would pay for the new Winthrop fire station and the Twisp Civic Center with money left over. The difference in the operational deficits alone would pay for a new outdoor pool every 15 years or so.

Likely the permanent taxing demands of this proposed Metropolitan Park District will compete directly with many voters’ willingness to fund existing needs, i.e., the recent hospital special levy, EMS and school levies. I feel this is a fiscally irresponsible approach for replacing the Wagner Pool.

Shane Ruoss
Winthrop