Thank you to the Vashon Park District (VPD) board for voting “yes” on covering our outdoor pool. This is a wonderful opportunity to bring year-round aquatics to the island for everyone.

Thank you to the Vashon Seals Swim Team parents/engineers for donating hundreds of hours of professional services, researching and carefully crafting the proposals. Thank you to VPD staff Scott Bonney and Elaine Ott-Rocheford, who have worked collaboratively and closely with the Seals over the past six months to ensure this first step toward year-round aquatics programming is sustainable and wise. Thank you to numerous members of the swimming community for their invaluable input and energy along the way. Thank you to the Seals board for its leadership in partnering with VPD, donations of equipment to the pool for public use and collaboration on a public/private King County Youth Sports Facilities’ grant for necessary repairs and upgrades to the pool. Thank you to the over 1,500 voting-age islanders and businesses that clearly voiced overwhelming support via petition for the pool cover.

My sincerest thanks to the VPD commissioners who voted in favor of this decision to extend access to a cherished public resource for a long-underserved portion of our community. Your care in understanding the proposal fully over the past six months, interest in listening to all members of the community and thoughtful, yet decisive action are examples of the kind of careful and visionary leadership our island needs more of. This act embodies the stated VPD values of “Total Commitment to Community” and “Commitment to Excellence” and is precisely the sort of “creative community partnership” that the VPD mission statement envisions — for that, I applaud and thank you.

— Charlie Choo