EVERETT – A second city-run indoor swimming pool could be placed in the city’s south end – if residents are willing to pony up for it.
Constructing a supermarket-sized swim center in south Everett should be a top priority, a new parks and recreation study says.
In the past, the city talked about plopping a second indoor pool somewhere in north Everett.
Now the focus is on building a $17 million recreation complex at Silver Lake’s woodsy Thornton A. Sullivan Park by the end of 2010.
This is all contingent on voters approving a future parks bond.
At 50,000 square feet, the center would be large enough for leisure and lap pools, a gym, racquetball courts and classrooms.
It would cost between $1.3 million to $1.5 million to run annually, with up to 75 percent of the cost being recovered by fees.
The south end was picked because its residents are now underserved by city parks, said Leon Younger, president of Indianapolis-based PROS Consulting.
“What you want to do is create a balanced park system that has good equity among all parts of the city,” Younger said.
PROS is almost done with the $200,000 Everett Parks and Recreation Strategic Master Plan, a comprehensive document aimed at mapping out park planning and management of the city’s 40 parks over the next decade.
The plan also emphasizes expanding trails and public access to the peninsula’s waterfront.
Turning Sullivan Park into a “signature park” on par with Forest Park, should be a city goal, Younger said.
An estimated 180,000 people use the Forest Park Swim Center every year.
Sullivan Park’s beach is popular with swimmers in the summer, but many people who live nearby use Forest Park’s pool during the cold months.
A new pool would take pressure off Forest Park, which often has a full parking lot, while giving thousands a place to swim closer to home.
A planned Silver Lake trail loop in the works could also bring pizzazz to the neighborhood. The trail would extend through the park, then along an elevated boardwalk along the south shore of Silver Lake.
The city meanwhile would look at a number of sources to pay for it, including a possible parks bond measure.
Younger said the upfront cost for a new south Everett recreation center might seem excessive, but given a 50- to 70-year life span, it would be a good investment for the community.
The prospect of a new pool excites Peggy Claflin, a 30-year resident of Silver Lake and a neighborhood association organizer.
The Silver Lake Neighborhood Association currently meets in a nursing home, and there are few indoor recreation facilities serving the neighborhood.
“We need something like that,” Claflin said.
The city’s parks plan was shaped, in part, by comments from people like Claflin.
The consultant surveyed 600 Everett households and collected comments from more than a dozen public meetings.
To pinpoint gaps in service PROS consultants drew a series of concentric circles rippling out from existing parks.
While emphasis for a second pool is shifting south, a new north Everett indoor city pool isn’t off the table.
The new park plan says the city should consider forming partnerships to open a 50,000-square-foot indoor recreation center in north Everett.
Two years ago, a group including the city of Everett, Everett Community College, the Everett School District, Providence Everett Medical Center, the YMCA and Snohomish County looked at jointly building a recreation center.
The organizations hired a company for $12,400 to conduct a feasibility study on such a project.
It found sufficient interest, but the money just wasn’t there, said Michael Kerns, the college’s vice president of administration.
EvCC closed its pool for safety reasons four years ago. It remains closed, but the college plans to eventually open a new pool, turning to partnerships to pay for it, Kerns said.
One possible location for a pool is the 17-acre College Plaza Shopping Center on N. Broadway, which the college could take over as part of a land swap with Providence, he said.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
Public hearing
The City Council is expected to accept the study at its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. March 21 at the City Council Chambers, 3002 Wetmore Ave.
More online
Go to www.everettwa.org, then click Parks Strategic Plan.
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