A major Thurston County pool is closing. How are others in the area doing?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Budgets and deferred maintenance drive colleges and districts to weigh pool closures.
- Aging systems and big repair costs drive decisions; Evergreen's ops ~$250K.
- Officials seek regional solutions while districts weigh levies and grant options.
In an era of tighter budgets, where expenses have outstripped the pace of revenue growth, the swimming pool has become a target.
Why? Because they come with a long list of maintenance and repair needs that can quickly escalate if not addressed, according to those Thurston County officials close to pool operations, including at The Evergreen State College, the Tanglewilde Recreation Center and North Thurston Public Schools.
Evergreen has announced a plan to close its pool in June to address its budget deficit.
The Puyallup School District recently announced a plan to address a $15 million shortfall in its budget, which initially considered closing the Puyallup High School swimming pool. The district would save $300,000 by closing the pool, the News Tribune reported, but ultimately chose to cut elsewhere, instead.
“I can understand why Evergreen is shutting down the pool,” said Linda Murphy, board president of the Tanglewilde Recreation Center, which has ties to the Tanglewilde Park & Recreation District, a property tax levy-funded area of the county near Lacey. The district operates a summer outdoor pool and two parks
Chemicals take a huge toll on pools, she said, so preventative maintenance is key. But if that doesn’t happen, then you enter the slippery slope of deferred maintenance, which is when expenses can soar.
“If you don’t stay on top of it, it comes after you,” Murphy said.
Evergreen update
After the community learned about Evergreen’s pool closure, several concerned residents have spoken out at Olympia City Council and Thurston County commissioner meetings.
Those elected officials have reached out to the college as a result and had conversations with President John Carmichael, college spokesman Nick Ocheltree said Thursday.
Carmichael, too, has responded to community members via an email about the true cost of running the pool. That message was shared with The Olympian.
The college previously cited $60,000 in immediate repairs to the pool as required by the state Department of Health, but to many that didn’t seem like much of a hurdle for the college to overcome.
Carmichael’s email spells out the larger challenge, including $250,000 in annual operating expenses and a near term investment of $1 million to make a series of repairs.
“Even if we complete that ($60,000) repair, the pool would still rely on a very fragile, aging mechanical system that is at high risk of catastrophic failure sometime in the relatively near future,” Carmichael wrote.
Longer term the college has looked at two needs: replacing the existing chlorine system for $1.3 million or converting it to a saline pool for $2.7 million. However, that was under consideration in 2014, so those figures would need to be updated to account for inflation, according to the president’s email.
Tanglewilde pool
The Tanglewilde Park & Recreation District was established in 1959 and the pool opened in the early 1960s, said Murphy. The district occupies an unincorporated area of Thurston County, although it is surrounded by the city of Lacey.
The pool generates its own revenue by charging a daily rate or through memberships or selling food or renting out the pool for group events. Lydia Hawk Elementary 5th graders use the pool in June before school lets out for the summer, she said
The pool also relies on a six-year property tax levy that was recently renewed by voters that generates about $160,000 a year. Roughly 600 residents in the district pay the tax, said Mike Murphy, one of five elected commissioners who oversee how the tax levy is spent. He holds the Position 4 seat.
He and Linda Murphy are husband and wife.
Pool expenses cost about $70,000 last year, she said. They spent $12,000 on electricity to heat the pool, plus they patch and paint the pool every year. Liability insurance for the pool and park recently increased to $16,000 from $12,000 because they had to change insurance companies, Mike Murphy said.
“We couldn’t open the pool without it,” he said.
Longer term, the pool needs to be resurfaced – it hasn’t been resurfaced since it opened — an expense that’s estimated at more than $100,000, Linda Murphy said. She hopes their nonprofit status will allow them to apply for grants.
Despite the ongoing and future expenses, Linda is committed to keeping the parks and pool open because she feels children don’t have enough recreational options in a county known for its long, rainy winters.
“It’s a passion for me and those who work on the board,” she said.
North Thurston Public Schools
The largest school district in the county has three swimming pools at North Thurston, Timberline and River Ridge high schools.
“They are used to teach water safety classes, recreational classes, and for our district high school sports teams,” spokeswoman Amy Blondin said in an email.
The pools are not in jeopardy of closing, but they come with their own expenses, she said.
“Annual maintenance costs are about $72,500 for things like chlorine, lighting and heating, water, and custodial time,” Blondin said. “We replace pumps about once every five years, which are about $5,000. We also have lifeguards (paraeducators) at our pools during classes.
“Additional costs would be electricity and water, which are built into the school budgets. We do receive some revenue from community groups using our pools,” she wrote.
What will happen to the Evergreen pool? No decision will be made on the pool for at least another year, according to President Carmichael.
“The option of re-opening the pool remains on the table, and Evergreen is eager to participate in a regional planning process for public aquatics facilities.
“I am personally hopeful that this can be a catalyst for a community response that brings us a regional aquatics solution. And if the Evergreen pool can be part of that solution, I would be thrilled,” he wrote.
