County: Let voters decide pool district

The Times, Oct 22, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

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Managing governmental priorities and what’s best for the public is not always easy. But sometimes elected officials have to make the best of a tough situation and move on.

An immediate case in point is how to keep open the swimming pools at Tigard and Tualatin high schools after the school district has said it can no longer afford the centers’ $500,000 annual operating cost.

Things have gotten so bad in public funding for education, that the Tigard-Tualatin School District this year postponed buying new math textbooks for elementary students and instead used the funds to operate the pools. Frankly, this is a choice that the school leaders should not repeat.

The school district has given pool supporters and community leaders until next spring to come up with an alternative funding source or else the pools will be closed June 30, thereby eliminating student, athletic and community use of the two pools that were constructed and paid for through school bond measures.

Supporters say the best way to keep the pools open is to ask voters in the May 2010 primary election to approve the creation of a special service aquatic district and to vote to tax themselves 9 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The election would be held among local voters and has been blessed by the city councils in Tigard, Tualatin, King City and Durham. Now it’s up to the Washington County Commission to allow the election.

Apparently, such support is not assured. Several county commissioners express reservations over the creation of yet-another special service district in the county that might lead to requests for creating special service districts elsewhere in Washington County.

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