Editor,

I am a commissioner for the North Whidbey Parks and Recreation District. The comments below are my own and not necessarily the stated position of the board of commissioners as a whole. We put the renewal of the parks and rec district levy on the ballot that is to be returned Aug. 1. I encourage the voters of the district to support that levy.

There was a lot of controversy regarding the park and rec district, especially in the last year, but it is important for voters to ask themselves one question – do I think this community needs a public pool? If the answer is “yes,” then you should support for the levy. The parks and rec district operates the pool in Oak Harbor, the only public, open-year-round pool on Whidbey Island.

We also run the only off-leash dog park on the north end of the island, though the dog park is nowhere near the expense of the pool.

I think this community needs a pool. We live on an island, surrounded by water. We need a place for the non-swimmers and not great swimmers to learn to swim and to be more comfortable in the water. We need a place for the elderly to get the only exercise they can get, because a pool is less taxing on their creaky joints. We need a pool for the athletic swimmers who get their best exercise swimming hard laps, and also for the kids who just want to play in a pool sometimes. The pool is used for kayak lessons, scuba diving instruction and a whole lot more.

When I joined the board in 2014, I was not sure why we had a levy. I quickly found that pools do not pay for themselves. We have to buy the water, treat and heat the water. We have large maintenance expenses to pay within the next several years as aging equipment reaches its projected end-of-service life. We are limited in how many people we can fit into the water at one time, and there are many hours of the day when fewer people are available to use the pool so it cannot be at capacity use every hour of the day. Currently, the pool is open from about 6 a.m. to 9 or 10 p.m. If the levy fails, we will immediately cut hours of operation, potentially some programs and increase prices, trying to find a sweet spot where revenue will match expenses, but cost will not drive away patrons.

I was told by the district’s director that we will have to close the doors. Even if we somehow found a way to pay all the immediate overhead, the long-term maintenance costs for the pool are so heavy they can only be paid for by a levy or capital program.

In the last almost three years, the NWPRD board of directors raised prices, cut expenses and continues to explore further ways to make the district fiscally sound. I encourage the voters to allow us to continue the process and vote “yes” for the levy. Save the pool.

Donna Sue Holly, commissioner

North Whidbey Parks and Recreation