Thank you for your letters and testimony in favor of including pools in the current levy.  As a result of your efforts, the City Council committed yesterday to including pool funding of some sort in a future levy (details here). 

Funds for swimming are not included in this fall’s Parks Levy.  We hear that facilities are not the target of this levy and that better planning & costing are needed for pools (more on that later).

The good:  Your levy lobbying did get something really cool into the City Council’s energy efficiency budget– UV treatment for multiple pools will likely be funded.  UV treatment is a pre-requisite for 7-day openings at our indoor pools.  We’ll need to lobby again for a bit more budget to cover 7-day openings, but this gets us much closer.  Imagine swimming at Meadowbrook (for example) on Sunday!

Next steps:  It is clear that an Aquatics Plan is the prerequisite for getting public pools built or renovated.  We must get an Aquatics Plan funded by the Fall 2008 city budget for planning data and matching funds to be ready when the next Parks levy is formulated (4-5 years 2010).  Due to biannual granting and budgeting cycles, this year’s budget is critical for us. 

HOW TO HELP:  SOON: Lobby for the Aquatics Plan.  FOR NOW:  The best way to help is to subscribe to www.seattlepools.org for updates.  Use the text box on the right-hand side (or RSS) to subscribe, then confirm your email identify to activate.  Subscribing to the site helps us get info to you (like flyers and news stories) promptly & efficiently.  Our massive email list (the one that lives in Excel) only receives occasional updates.  Thank you!

Team Meeting:  You’re Invited:  Tuesday July 29th 7:30pm.  We’ll coordinate Northend and Southend efforts to get the Aquatics Plan into the city budget.  Please email elizabeth@seattlepools.org for directions (likely near the U-Village).  We’d love to see you!

Thanks for your amazing support.

–Elizabeth & the Project Seattle Pools Team              www.seattlepools.org