Voters should say no and look at other options

Citizens in Monroe can vote no on the YMCA plan and still get a swimming pool. Here are logical and affordable ways to get a swimming pool without passing a $5.1 million bond issue.

Taxpayers, don’t burden yourselves with another tax. You’ve got school bond issues and a hospital expansion to consider soon, and there are no alternative forms of financing those projects. Here are three ways you can get a swimming pool (more aptly an aquatic complex), without passing a $5.1 million bond issue and paying taxes for the next 20 years to do so, along with user fees when you actually utilize the facility:

1. Ask the city of Monroe to submit a smaller bond proposal exclusively to build what you’ve asked for, a swimming pool. A fantastic facility could be built for $2 to $2.5 million.

2. Allow private enterprise to invest in the Monroe community. As a fitness club owner myself, I know there is a tremendous interest by various successful multi-purpose club owners to expand into the Monroe and Tri-Valley region to build a similar facility to what the YMCA has proposed. The difference is that they don’t ask you, the taxpayer, to pay for it.

3. Wait for a few years and the YMCA will build a facility without a bond issue. I think the timetable for the YMCA to build a facility in Monroe is only a few years off.

So you see, taxpayers, you have options. You can vote no to the YMCA and still be confident that Monroe will have a swimming pool or aquatic complex in the near future without taking two bites out of your budget.

Valley Rally Fitness Club

Monroe

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