Voters set to decide on community center
October 30, 2008
By Ed Farrell
With just days to go before voters make their decision on whether or not to approve a $10 million bond question to build a community center on Snoqualmie Ridge, the community itself remains divided on the need for the facility — even among those who would be closest to the facility.
Signs in support of a proposed community center dot Snoqualmie Parkway.
The strongest feelings, both for and against the center, seem to focus on the city’s choice of the YMCA as its partner to manage the $14 million facility.
The city has already promised to subsidize the YMCA’s maintenance and operations costs for up to $2 million — $100,000 a year for up to 20 years — an agreement city officials have said was necessary to secure the YMCA’s commitment to the project.
And while the YMCA has promised to waive joining fees for city of Snoqualmie residents should the bond question be approved, the group’s own survey shows few city residents have expressed interest in using the facility and that the strongest showing of support could come from other areas of the Snoqualmie Valley, including North Bend, Fall City and Preston – areas where the question will not be on the ballot, nor where homeowners will be subject to property tax increases.
Approval of the bonds would add about $120 annually to the property tax bill for owners of a $400,000 home within the Snoqualmie city limits.
In addition to the property tax increases, a city of Snoqualmie family wishing to use the facility regularly would be subject to monthly dues of up to $93, making the annual cost to the family to use the community center in excess of $1,200.
“We’re strongly for it,” said Laurie Henderson, a Snoqualmie Ridge resident who said the new center could make great strides in improving relations between residents of “old” Snoqualmie and “new” Snoqualmie Ridge.
Henderson said the most favorable aspect of the proposal to her was the involvement with the YMCA.
“I have friends who live close to YMCAs in other areas, and they create a great sense of community and provide fabulous opportunities for users of all ages,” Henderson said.
“I love the concept of a community center,” said Ridge resident Carol Waters, “but I have problems with the city providing the building for the YMCA. This proposal would not be a community center run by the community for the community, but rather a Y facility run for the YMCA.”
City officials have struggled with the need to maintain a sense of neutrality on the bond question, yet still have tried to convey the need to move forward with the project as one that would benefit the community as a whole.
Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson has stated that if approval for the bonds is not secured on Tuesday, the city will try again in two years, at a far more expensive cost given expected construction inflation of as much as 15 percent a year.
Even former city officials have weighed in on the measure.
Former mayor R. Fuzzy Fletcher, in a letter to the editor published in The Star, said that he once opposed the center but now was supportive of the bond issue.
Among Fletcher’s conclusions: “It will never get any less expensive to build a community center.”
Fletcher also warned voters that should they not pass the bond measure Tuesday, “then when the city builds the community center, the taxpayers will pay for maintenance and operation.”
Several community groups, including Encompass and the Mt. Si Metropolitan Parks District have endorsed the bond issue. As has the Snoqualmie Valley School District, even though both opponents and supporters of the bonds suggest a future school bond question could be threatened by the community center bond effort.
James Joyce, another Ridge resident, said he felt “this just isn’t a good time” to ask voters to approve a bond issue, given the pending need by the school district to pass a bond issue of its own.
“There just seems to be a lot of unknowns,” Joyce said, “and it would be a shame to endanger the school bond issue. And, quite frankly, this seemed to be very rushed … it smacks of the city trying to push this thing through.”
Reach reporter Ed Farrell at efarrell@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434.
Comments
Got something to say?
