Tax district would fund rec centers

KOOTENAI – Robert Pierce can almost smell the chlorine of the swimming pool and hear ice skates slicing across the rink as he stands in a snowy field where he envisions a community center for Bonner County residents.

Yet he first must convince voters within the boundaries of the Lake Pend Oreille School District that they should create a recreation district, which would generate tax dollars to build such a community center.

Then he must convince the taxing district’s board, which the Idaho governor would appoint, that a community center with a swimming pool and ice rink is the best use of the money.

Pierce, a veterinarian and hockey player, is part of the Sandpoint Centre Corporation that landed the measure on the Feb. 7 ballot by gathering more than 4,800 signatures and raising $5,000 to pay for the special election.

“We want to provide resident kids no-cost, after-school activities every day,” Pierce said about the community center. The public facility also could have meeting rooms and a walking track.

“Like today,” Pierce said, kicking at the slushy snow on the eight acres off Highway 2 in Kootenai that would be donated to the district for the center. “What is there for kids to do? My kids are at home, wanting to play video games.”

The ballot doesn’t address how to spend the tax revenue, which Pierce estimates would cost the average homeowner an extra $120 per year in property taxes and generate about $1.3 million of revenue a year for the new taxing district. The exact amount of the additional taxes, along with the official ballot language, is still being finalized.

The vote is just about whether to create the recreation district, which voters can establish to pay for and maintain public recreation centers ranging from swimming pools and snowmobile facilities to golf courses and public transportation systems.

There’s already one recreation district in Bonner County – Selkirk Recreation District – which Schweitzer Mountain property owners created in 1998 to repair the mountain’s roads.

If residents approve the creation of the district, the governor would appoint a three-member board that would manage the district, levy the taxes and decide how to spend the money.

The Sandpoint Centre Corp. would no longer have any say in the district, unless one of its members was appointed by the governor.

That’s why the group is so strongly pushing for the swimming pool and ice rink and Pierce got his brother-in-law to agree to donate the land, which is across the highway from the Conoco station in Kootenai. He wants the board of the district to know that people support the idea of a community center.

“It’s not exactly a slam dunk,” Pierce said. “But we want to make this plan really available and visible to the public.”

Don Helander, who owns the Sandpoint West Athletic Club and is on the city’s Park and Recreation Commission, agrees the town needs a community center but questions whether a swimming pool and ice rink are the best use of tax dollars. He thinks both those amenities are too geared toward special interests – swimmers and hockey players.

He said his club has a swimming pool that is already widely used by the community. Helander said people who have a membership to the club also would have to pay taxes for the community center. He added that he also would pay taxes to essentially help his competition.

“We need to have a round-table discussion and find out what the need is,” Helander said. “What would be the highest and best use for a community center.”

Pierce said his group isn’t yet able to provide estimates on how much the community center with a pool and ice rink would cost, other than it would be in the millions, and doesn’t have any projections for long-term operation and maintenance costs. He said it’s possible that, to save money, the center might close in the summer months, when Lake Pend Oreille is warm enough to swim in and locals have many other activities available.

He said the tax revenue would help the district attract grants, donations and money from sports groups like the National Hockey League.

Sagle resident Paul Wanamaker is against more taxes, especially in an area where escalating property taxes already are a problem. Wanamaker wasn’t available for comment Thursday but wrote in a guest opinion in the Bonner County Daily Bee that the entire county shouldn’t have to pay for something driven by special interests.