HomeMy WebLinkAbout120523 email Aquatic CenterALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
I wanted to add my two cents as someone who lives in the county and rarely goes into Port Townsend- largely because there are no businesses there to attract my business.
The last census showed that there are approximately 33k people living within Jefferson County. If the proposed aquatic center were to stay within the $37 million dollar budget that would
be a cost of over $1000 per person [not tax paying adults], not including overruns or ongoing operating costs. As a single father with two kids, I could build a pretty nice home swimming
pool for $3000. I cannot understand why you are contemplating this when so many are already struggling financially in a county that is already poor. Not to mention an extremely small
fraction of the population uses the current pool, and there is no way to vastly increase the population available to use it because we are not only geographically limited but are limited
due to the ongoing housing and job crisis that prevents new families from settling here.
I've seen articles showing how the existing pool could be retrofitted [by local businesses], and/or a cheaper facility installed in Port Hadlock which is more centrally located. Both
make significantly more sense especially given the fact that there are already private community pools throughout the county.
It's just very frustrating. I mentioned this to the mayor and city council when discussing the golf course, and he had the audacity to write back and say they were working on finding
ways to avoid the city having to spend any money [for the golf course?] and holistically analyze the city budget to be fiscally sustainable. All of which is clearly a load of codswallop,
given Cherry Street, the golf course project and more.
Local government is supposed to be fiscally responsible, and focus on what is best for the majority of the constituents, while listening to everyone and avoiding being a burden to them.
I learned this firsthand when I was a volunteer councilman in Oregon. I have not seen that over the last decade plus here.
If you want to build an aquatic center here you first need to fix the housing crisis, and make Jefferson county a place where businesses want to come. Adding a sewer in Port Hadlock
is a step in the right direction, but given how small the local population is, we need significantly more tax payers to cover this before we even think about something on that scale
unless you get private donations to cover an overwhelming portion of it.
-Jon Georg
3710 Oak Bay Rd
Port Hadlock, WA 98339