Tigard's ‘Save the Pools’ faces new boundary challenge

By Geoff Pursinger

The Times, Oct 15, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (5 Reader comments)

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Proponents of saving the Tigard and Tualatin high school swimming pools are inching their way toward the 2010 ballot, after meeting with Washington County officials to allow Bull Mountain access a proposed aquatic district that pool-proponents have been working toward.

The meeting comes weeks after receiving news that the grassroots effort obtained more than 8,500 signatures to keep the pools open — which were threatened with closure when the Tigard-Tualatin School District announced that it could not afford to keep them open any longer — well more than the 6,700 signatures the county said that they needed.

Members of the Committee to Save Tigard-Tualatin Pools hope to create a special aquatic district to run the two facilities, alleviating the budgetary pressure on the school district by enacting a permanent tax levy to keep the pools open.

Inch-by-inch

The victory comes in the face of mounting opposition, committee members say, as obstacle after obstacle continue to keep the group from moving forward more than an inch at a time.

First the committee had to obtain approval from the four cities that the proposed aquatic district would cover — Tigard, Tualatin, Durham, and King City. The cities gave unanimous approval and the committee prepared to move forward, until it learned that they would also have to receive approval from the city of Portland as well. Forty-four homes in the proposed aquatic district lie within the city’s boundary.

Due to time and budgetary constraints, drawing up a new boundary for the proposed district was impossible, committee spokeswoman Cheryl Coupé said. So plans were made to use the school district’s existing boundary.

“It just made the most sense to use school’s boundary,” said Coupé, a member of the steering committee heading up the effort. “After all, these are the people who use the pool and are continuing to pay for their construction.”

More problems arose, however, when the boundary — which extends into unincorporated Bull Mountain — began to interfere with current county regulations.

Under the current plan, the city of Tigard is responsible for the parks and recreation needs of the Bull Mountain area, which would place the proposed aquatic district in violation if the measure is passed by voters.

The area couldn’t simply be left out of the boundary, because to do so would require a new boundary to be drawn up, which the committee can’t afford.

Members of the committee met with the Washington County Planning Commission, Thursday, to resolve the matter.

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