Si View pool opens, director hired

NORTH BEND - All the papers have been signed and the Si View Community Center Pool was slated to open June 3.

As of the Valley Record's deadline, Si View Park District Board of Commissiones chair Kevin Haggerty said King County workers were scheduled to begin operating the pool June 3. While commissioners have said King County will not be involved in the facility in the future, since the workers were in place and had been properly trained they would be utilized on an interim basis to get the pool up and running.

Haggerty said the commissioners also had hired an interim director to help determine which management plan is best for the facility. Don Williams, a former parks and recreation director with the city of Tukwila will be with the park district until the end of the year.

The former county facility had been mothballed since Jan. 1 as part of a cost-cutting response to a 2003 budget shortfall of $52 million.

On Feb. 4, North Bend voters approved the formation of the Si View Metropolitan Park District. The measure allows the district's five elected commissioners the authority to establish levy rates - expected to be 28 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation - without voter approval. Those funds, about $400,000, will be used to reopen and operate the Si View facility.

For information, visit www.siviewpark.org.

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