More Public Documents reveal bigger plans that just a pool

[pasayten]

Never asked and never heard of FOTP... I also did not get the Methow Valley News.

[PAL]

Did anyone on this BB get asked? I didn't. They asked the people who they thought would say yes. 80% of what population? Statistics can be skewed.

[Fun CH]

Early planning since 2019 defining stakeholder needs and scope of recreational district, which is huge considerning a $65 million debt limit and $2million in property tax revenue per year and always increasing as property values go up.

[Fun CH]

Scanning last week's letters to the editor, quote;

"To ask people to vote against Proposition 1 and then tack on a “Yes to a new pool” begs the question: a new pool where? And who is going to pay for it?
Carolanne Steinebach"

As you can see in the FOP emails posted above, one option that was discussed was for a county wide sales tax increase.

When opponents say "yes to a new pool" (Carolanne, you left out the new "plan" part )that would include a plan for elected board members, 6 year levy vote that fosters accountability, and a pool plan that is actually affordable and doesn't place the burden on low income families.

The other letter was by FOP board members Blue Bradley's husband Larry Goldie. You may remember, Larry's company NCMG was caught guiding out of it's permitted terrain area and received a warning letter from the Forest Service in 2012. So no problem violating his public land special use permit and the public trust.

Larry states quote;

"No one likes paying property taxes. I do however appreciate having safe roads to drive on, a school system for our children, law enforcement personnel, firefighters, libraries, etc. This is the design of property taxes; everyone pays their share, and everyone benefits. This type of tax is far less regressive than a sales tax."


But Larry the MPD levy is still a regressive tax that hurts low income families and seniors on the low income tax program who still pay all or part of that tax. The other two recreation district types completely eliminates recreational taxes for low income seniors and the disabled.

You are also comparing essential services to a way over the top year round luxury desire facility, plus any future facilities.

Larry, will your recreational company NCMG benefit from increased tourism and from our Valley's low income families recreational tax dollars if prop 1 passes? I didn't see that mentioned in your letter.

[pasayten]

List of emails from FOTP to Andy Hover showing early thinking on the pool... From a public records request by Chris.

From: FOP Twisp
Sent on: Sunday, February 13, 2022 12:25:59 PM
To: Andy Hover
Subject: Learn what Friends of the Pool is up to
Dear Commissioner Hover,
As you know, Friends of the Pool has been working to remedy the imentant reality that the valley may soon be without a public pool unless we act now. The Twisp Pool is on its last legs and it's been a band- aid approach for too long.
We would like to invite you to a brief presentation and discussion to inform you of our on-going feasibility study to design and scope a facility for the 21st Century. As you may know, an anonymous donor provided funds for us to hire a recreation/aquatics consulting firm to help us scope a project that's right for our community. They recently finished the market analysis and are now preparing 3
scenarios that we will bring to the public in late March. We'd like to meet you prior to the public meeting.
We have heard for years that people would like the option of year round swimming. Additionally, our outreach has informed us that a rec center is desired by many. What we build, regardless of whether
it's an indoor pool, outdoor pool, year-round recreation center for youths and seniors, requires input and cooperation from our elected officials. It also requires long term operations funding that the Town alone can provide. We need to form a long-term funding mechanism, and the best way we see forward is to form a recreation district. We would really appreciate an hour of your time to meet with you and discuss our progress on the feasibility and gain your feedback.
Our board meets the second and third Thursdays at 2:00, however with the mid winter break next week we won't be meeting until the second week of March. Are you available the first week of March? Generally most of our board members are available Thursday afternoons, however, we can be pretty flexible with your schedule as needed. Please let us know when is a good time.
Best regards,
Sarah Schrock
Co-Chair
Friends of the Pool

From:FOP Twisp
Sent on:
Tuesday, March 8, 2022 9:11:23 AM
To: Andy Hover
Subject:
One Last Item for your Review!
Hello Again,
Sorry to bombard you with so much content, but as you can see, we've been working through a lot of information, and given our brief meeting, it might be helpful for you to have the slide deck we will present to you ahead of time.
See you Thursday! Sarah
(See slides pdf file downloadable in previous post)

From:Sarah Schrock
Sent on:Thursday, May 19, 2022 3:49:53 PM
To:Andy Hover
CC:Suzanne Perin
Subject: In person Friends of the Pool Meeting?
Hi Andy,
As we are getting into the final stages of our feasibility study we’d really like to meet with you again to discuss the options for an aquatics facility in the Methow Valley. We appreciate your time with this last winter and really want to discuss some next steps.
Are you available next Wednesday the 25th in the morning hours between 8 and 12:00 to meet in person?
Thank you,
And please feel free to call or text 541 729-xxxx
Sarah Schrock
Sent from Sarah
On Mar 8, 2022, at 4:52 AM, Sarah Schrock <foptwisp@gmail.com> wrote:
Andy,
We are looking forward to meeting with you on Thursday. We’ve allotted 25 minutes in our meeting at the beginning to present some background information and then some Q&A. I will send you some documents today or tomorrow as well to get you up to speed.
See you Thursday!
Sarah
Sent from Sarah

From: Blue Bradley
Sent on: Tuesday, May 24, 2022 7:21:00 AM
To: Justin Porter; Sarah Schrock; Ryan T. Bell; geraldebell@yahoo.com; Kate Posey; Jeanne White; Aaron Studen; benn@townofwinthrop.com; majastevie@yahoo.com; Julie and Jerry Palm; Hans Smith; Andy Hover
Subject: Rec District Meeting 6/2
Hey!    
We are trying to reconvene a group of people interested in discussing and helping to form a Recreation District in the Methow Valley with a focused purpose to support the new pool facility    The new aquatic center is going to need it in order to operate for the next 50 years, and there is talk of possibly doing it for both the Town's parks as well.  We have some preliminary information to share, and  we would like to start meeting monthly to discuss how to make this happen.     
If you're NOT interested, please let Justin or I know.    
If you are interested, come join us in person if you can make it-  for 1 hour on 6/2/22 at 1pm at the Aero Methow conference room.  Let us know if you'd prefer or need a virtual option and we can maybe create that.  
If you know anyone else who might be interested, please invite them or forward this email. Hope to see you on 6/2!
Blue Bradley, Justin Porter and Sarah Schrock  (from Friends of the Pool) Blue's cell- 509-341-xxxx

From: FOP Twisp
Sent on: Thursday, January 5, 2023 8:51:18 AM
To: Andy Hover
Subject: Please join the conversation for the Methow Valley's Future Pool
Dear Commissioner Hover,
Happy New Year! We hope you can join us for this upcoming meeting to learn about our progress for a new Methow Valley aquatics facility.
In addition to this public meeting, would it be possible to schedule a meeting with you to discuss next steps with regards to the formation of a recreation district or other operational revenue sources? We have a recreation district committee formed working through steps towards formation, but it requires better communication with elected officials as it can be proposed through an interlocal agreement as opposed to a petition process. We'd like to gain as much public support as possible for this project and the
more conversations, the better.
For instance, in conversations with Senator Brad Hawkins recently, he suggested perhaps a public facilities district as opposed to a recreation district that would be funded by sales tax on a county wide basis may be a better fit. He is working on enabling legislation for Chelan and Douglas County for this purpose. If we were to undertake that approach, it would take county-wide participation and perhaps enable other communities to plan and upgrade their local pools as well. I know Brewster is in need of upgrading and I can only imagine Omak and Okanogan are also in need of replacements soon. As of now we are moving forward with a valley-wide recreation district approach, but it would be good to have these conversations with you prior to launch of any campaign.
When can we meet? Our next board meeting is Jan 9th at 12:30 at AeroMethow, please let me know if you'd be able to attend for a portion or when we can get on your schedule.
Thank you and I hope to see you on Jan 18th at the Library! Best regards,
Sarah Schrock Friends of the Pool

From: Justin Porter
Sent on: Saturday, September 23, 2023 7:20:13 PM
To: Ray Peterson
CC: Andy Hover; Malloch Ken
Subject: Re: Why not like Tonasket?
Thanks, Ray.
If you believe our community needs and could only support a seasonal pool at .18/ $1000 then I’d encourage you to do two things:
Vote yes on prop 1 and work to be on the board or citizens advisory committee. You can influence these choices.
The board and committee will determine what is built and how. Nobody else has the authority to make those decisions: not friends of the pool and not Ballard King.
In the future, it’s best to email me pool questions at the recreation district gmail address and not here. Thanks again, Justin
On Sat, Sep 23, 2023 at 5:51 PM Ray Peterson <pasayten@yahoo.com> wrote:
Tonasket Park and Recreation District...
Not a Metropolitan Park District
Not a permanent taxing authority levy... Six year cycle with voter approval. Did you know that .18 per thousand translates to $18 per year if you own a $100,000 home?
No tax dollars used to build the pool - Tonasket Community Pool is a million dollar facility donated to the Community by the Community? Your support of the levy allows us to maintain the pool.
No appointed Board... Tonasket Park and Recreation District commissioners are volunteers Did you know it costs $80K to run the pool each year and $20K is received each year through admissions. The Tonasket Park and Recreation District covers the remaining cost of operating a pool..
https://tonasketparks.org/

[Fun CH]

Yes to a pool, but the 4th point says it's not a go ahead to build as they want the community involved more.

they could have done that at anytime during the planning process since 2019 by sending out a scoping letter to the community. That still could have happened this summer when it was pointed it out to them. Never happened.

Here is the email where Blue states they were Considering an Aquatics Center for both Twisp and Winthrop.

You can see in the header who they really wanted involved.

Tap on capture to clear it up.

[PAL]

I was told by a friend that Andy is very good about accepting phone calls. Better than emails. Phone can be found on Okanogan County Commissioner site.
Also just sort of noticed what their big ad says in the paper. Yes to a pool, but the 4th point says it's not a go ahead to build as they want the community involved more.

[pasayten]

In the March 2022 slides sent to Hover, this one was interesting... Showing the 3 types of districts and of course we now know they choose the Metropolitan Park District on the left...

But note that on this slide they mentioned an ELECTED board... They later changed that to an APPOINTED board as they were afraid elected board members might be independent thinkers and not be in lock step with FOTP plans. This was revealed to me in my meeting with Ken Malloch and Justin Porter of FOTP in August.

20220308_hover mtg slides.pdf

(1.21 MiB) Downloaded 143 times

[pasayten]

Lots of FOTP emails to Andy Hover... Does he ever respond to them?

[Fun CH]

Looking through a recent batch of documents recieved from the county via a public document request reveal big plans for the Metropolitan Park District.

At one point the FOP was discussing an Aquatics Center for both Twisp and Winthrop.

It was discussed through community input that our tax money could be used to fund along with the Indoor Aquatics Center, a skate park, funding to help city parks, a recreation center, a youth/teen center, senior programing and summer camps. We already know the Aqutic Center(s) may also include dorm rooms, manger living quarters, gym equipment and a climbing wall.

The FOP also has consulted with Water Technology Inc. that does aquatic center design and restorations. Johnson Architects in Seattle is also heavily involved.

It appears the scope of this project is way beyond a simple pool.