The 2 attachments include a fact sheet on the background of GLCC and SPR funding, and a flyer for the meeting that was put together by one of the Evans Pool swimmers, Susan Helf. You and other's may have different opinions about this, however it is important that our table tennis community stays involved in order to advocate for our program.

 

Tuesday, March 14 @ 7 pm

GLCC gym

 

Kim Goldov

GLTTC volunteer

Green Lake Advisory Council member

 

 

From Susan Helf's flyer ...

Save Evans Pool and the Green Lake Community Center  March 10, 2017

Susan Helf

 

Our pool and community center are the most heavily-used recreational facilities in the city, with a total of 516,490 visits per year:  371,614 visits to Evans Pool and 244,876 to the community center, serving 104 visitors per hour open This is the second-highest number of visitors per hour of any recreational facility in the city.  In 2014, we voted to set up the Seattle Parks District and to authorize property tax increases to raise money dedicated to the parks. However, Seattle Parks & Recreation is using only 36% of the taxing authority given to it by the voters.  

 

Seattle Parks & Recreation promised to use levy funds for a new roof, new heating and cooling system, new pool windows and many other long-needed improvements. Those long-deferred repairs would cost about $5 million. Seattle Parks allocated  $2.6 million for those repairs but now refuses to spend it.   Claiming lack of funds, it has made almost NONE of promised repairs. As of August, 2016, it had $4.3 million on hand. We’re tired of frequent pool shut-downs. We want immediate renovation and repair of our buildings.  

 

Seattle Parks & Rec now says the buildings are too old to fix. According to the 2016 Strategic Plan, the pool and community center are to replaced at a cost of $25 million. Claiming it has “no money,” it wants to set up a public/private partnership with the YMCA, which would pay to replace the buildings and take over management. Because the YMCA would have to recoup its costs, this would mean higher entrance fees, cuts to programming and replacement of  City pool and community center employees with their own low-paid part-time workers.  

 

      HOW YOU CAN HELP 

 

• Attend the Green Lake Advisory Council meeting on Tuesday, March 14 at the Green Lake CC gym at 7 p.m, with Seattle Parks & Rec Superintendent Jesus Aguirre & Budget and Development Director Michael Shiosaki. Tell them to make immediate major repairs to our buildings and to start planning to replace the facilities, using public money. Tell them:  privatization means private gain and public pain.  Let’s pack this meeting! 

 

• Call City Councilmember Mike O’Brien, at (206) 684-8800 and Susan Golub at Seattle Parks & Recreation, (206) 684-7046, or Susan.Golub@PROTECTED  Tell them NO PRIVATIZATION! Tell them to use $4.3 million they have on hand to repair and renovate our pool and community center. Also tell them to use the 2014 funding authority to pay for a new pool and community center. 

 

• Join our public Facebook group, “Save Evans Pool and Green Lake Community Center” for updates and to view studies and other documents related to our facilities.