The Vashon Pool will be open an extra month next year if the park board votes to allocate funds in its 2015 budget to do so.
The seven-member Friends of the Vashon Pool, which formed in August, submitted a proposal to the Vashon Park District board last month, requesting that the pool season be lengthened by four weeks and that the pool remain open two hours longer each day to allow for more activities. Such a plan would likely cost about $15,000, group representatives say, with the bulk of that cost being offset by increased revenue. Group members have estimated that the plan would likely require about $5,000 from the park district.
Extending the pool season would increase the availability of the pool for a variety of groups who do not use it much or at all now, such as the schools and island seniors, friends members say. And it may enable more people to learn to swim, a potentially life-saving skill.
“It’s a public health issue,” said Ann White, a member of the group.
Group members note that there has been interest on the island for decades in having a year-round public pool and that in the 1980s, two ballot measures to cover the pool failed, both falling just shy of the 60 percent of the vote needed.
Now, they say, they are intent on expanding access to the pool next summer and covering the pool seasonally within five years. Should the park district approve the proposal for next summer, Friends members said, they will form a non-profit organization to better secure grants and donations to fund an inflatable bubble cover, which is a fraction of the cost of a permanent structure and allows for outdoor swimming in the summer months.
“It’s totally doable,” White said. “It’s not that much money, and the public support is there.”
As 2015 budget preparations are under way at the park district, group members said they were planning on attending Tuesday’s park board meeting to provide additional information commissioners had requested, including more information on projected costs, revenue and needed repairs at the pool.
Since forming, group members say they have worked closely with pool manager Scott Bonney and park district Executive Director Elaine Ott. They have also surveyed other uncovered pools in the area, including Normandy Park, Burien and Seattle, and found that all the pools they reviewed offered more programs and expanded schedules compared to Vashon.
“One hundred percent of the pools that we researched are open mid-May through mid-September,” members say in their written proposal.
On Vashon, member Bob McMahon said that it might make more sense to open as usual at the end of May and go through the end of September, both to capture September’s typically warmer weather and to give the schools a block of time that is as long as possible.
Indeed, the Vashon public schools have expressed interest in the friends’ efforts. Superintendent Michael Soltman wrote a letter of interest to the group, stating that the school district is interested in exploring the possibilities of using the Vashon Pool for its physical education and sports programs.
If the park district includes money in its budget next year to fund this effort, group members say they are ready to offer support in helping staff the pool for the extra month if need be. They could help recruit, they said, as well as get trained as guards or pool managers themselves.
The park commissioners will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 16, at Ober Park to discuss and finalize the 2015 budget. Because of the holidays, the board will not meet on Dec. 23. It is scheduled to vote on the budget at its first meeting in January, set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13.
