To the people of Kirkland. [Kirkland City Manager Kurt] Triplett and the Council are pressing forward with their plans for the ARC [Aquatics, Recreation and Community Center]. They want to impose a park district that becomes a de-facto taxing body. This so they can accumulate funds to purchase a site yet to be determined. Does anyone else find it curious that all sites discussed are within the pre-annexation boundaries. If it was so pressing that such a site be found and acquired why was it not down years ago?
After attending the recent public forum at the Kirkland Justice Center, the audience was told that our questions regarding the viability of the project came a little late. I believe that if this process is still in the finding a site state that our concerns have come at precisely the right time.
Forming a park district specifically for the ARC will certainly increase property taxes, will not guarantee the viability of the ARC project and could, as the monorail taxation district in Seattle did, simply raise funds but produce nothing. The funds are still being held by Seattle.
The park district will certainly need to have people assigned to manage it, create budgets and rules. I suppose this group would become an integral part of the council’s decision making apparatus and even if the ARC is never built this infrastructure of people will never be released from their positions. Such a group also provides cover for the council and the mayor when funding is over budget or something else goes wrong.
Lastly, many Juanita Beach Neighborhood Association folks provided tepid support for the ARC so their kids could have a place to learn to swim. That seemed to be their biggest concern, since the Juanita pool is no longer to be available to them. I ask if this lone reason is sufficient to rope everyone into a program that will probably never, despite promise to the contrary, be able to show a profit thus continually requiring public funds, creating its owns human infrastructure such as managers, secretaries and certainly swim instructors. the ARC will not be a one-time expose to acquire and build but rather a long term and expensive structure that then becomes the victim of budget shortfalls that could endanger its existence. The Redmond Pool, Juanita Pool and the St. Edwards Pool have all experienced closures due to funding restrictions.
LA Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness and Golds Gym have recently been built within 10-15 minutes of the Juanita neighborhoods and all three have pools, provide swimming lessons while not encumbering the property owners of Juanita and Kirkland with additional property taxes. There is also a YMCA pool in Bothell. So if swimming lessons is the only reason you think the ARC is worthwhile, think again and do not vote for higher taxes and an infrastructure that likely will not yield what you want but will never disappear should it fail.
Stan Olson, Kirkland
