Groups would be hurt if Si View closes
Published 2:25 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
NORTH BEND _ Raucous sounds of high-pitched squeals echoed off
the wooden basketball floor and walls. Children careened around in toy
cars, played King of the Hill on colored pads and tossed rubber balls to
their mothers and fathers.
It was a typical day at the Sno Valley Indoor Playground, which
operates three days a week inside the Si View Community Center.
Anne Stedman and Jeanne Acker, the two women who founded the
non-profit playground, are wondering how many of those typical days are left.
The answer should come by the end of this week, when the
Metropolitan King County Council is expected to adopt a budget for next year.
According to Tracy Guevara, an executive assistant with the council,
council members will meet at 8 a.m. Friday, and one of the items on
their agenda is the 2001 budget. There will be a public hearing before a
council vote, but a specific time has not been set.
Adopting a budget would mark the end of a contentious past two
months for the County Council and Executive Ron Sims. On Nov. 20, council
members voted 8-5 on a budget that included property-tax and fee limits
set by Initiative 722, which was passed by state voters on Election Day.
Ten days later, on Nov. 30, Sims vetoed the budget, saying it was out of
balance by $54 million and it would force the closure of county facilities,
including the Si View Pool and Community Center and the Preston
Community Center.
Republicans on the council have charged that Sims simply didn’t
want to adhere to I-722’s 2 percent property tax cap. In the budget he
submitted to the County Council, Sims called for a 2.61 percent increase.
In addition to programs offered by the King County Park System,
which oversees the facilities, the Si View Pool and Community center is
used by several non-profit organizations, a local church and a school, and it
can be rented for weddings and other special events.
Last week, the North Bend City Council adopted a resolution,
calling on the County Council and Sims to fund the Si View Pool and
Community Center. Acker, vice president of the Sno Valley Indoor Playground,
has been busy printing flyers to send out to Snoqualmie Valley School
District parents, asking them to support the facilities.
She hopes the council and the county executive can overcome
their differences and reach a compromise.
“I think they’re looking at the bottom line and not realizing the
implications this has,” she said.
“They [county officials] feel it’s under-utilized. We’re kind of in
the boonies; we’re kind of in the outskirts here and [cutting funding to the
pool and community center] is not going to be noticeable.”
Acker and Stedman began the indoor playground five years ago.
It’s open three mornings a week at the community center for infants to
children 5 years old, and the average attendance is more than 40 children
for each session. The only fee for using the playground is an optional $1
donation, and Stedman said some parents can’t afford that.
Her sign-in sheet contains the names of parents and children
from North Bend and Snoqualmie, Fall City, Issaquah, Redmond,
Carnation, Duvall and Maple Valley.
The Sno Valley Indoor Playground has a contract with King County to
use the Si View Community Center. Acker said the county has never charged
rent, but the indoor playground is more than willing to pay.
“We’ve got plenty of money in our coffers that if we need it, we’re
willing to fork it over,” she said.
On any given Sunday, between 120 and 175 members of
Cascade Covenant Church gather in the Si View Community Center to worship.
Jeremy Elseth, youth pastor of the church, said the congregation has
met there for the past 11 years.
“We’re kind of surprised to hear that it might close down,” he said
of the community center.
The church has plans to build a place of worship of its own in the
near future, but should the doors be locked to the community center, Elseth
said members have discussed holding worship services in the local theater or
in one of the schools.
Kristin Rose has also considered using school facilities to house
her programs in case the Si View Community Center is closed.
“One of the things you think about is the schools, but I know it’s not
that simple,” she said.
Rose is the family enrichment coordinator with Children’s Services
of Sno-Valley. In that role, she organizes the Children’s
Services-sponsored “Family Night,” which is held
every third Friday of the month in the community center. The non-profit
organization also uses the community center for its school-break
program, which, she said, “provides
enrichment opportunities for kids while they are out of school.”
This is the third year for the Family Night events, which offer
food, entertainment and activities for the whole family, and Rose said that
since its inception, “It has grown tremendously.” At this year’s
Halloween Family Night, more than 800 parents and children attended. Other
Family Nights average between 250 to 300 people.
She said the goal of Family Night is twofold: “Our aim is to provide
a healthy environment for families to interact, and secondly is to bring
the community close, to prevent isolation.”
Those who attend Family Night are concerned about the fate of
the program.
“I have many people come up to me and ask me about Family
Night and what will happen,” Rose said.
She added that talk of closing the Si View Community Center comes
at a bad time for the school-break program, which is currently expanding
its scope.
“This year we’ve really looked hard at improving the quality and
extending the hours and making it on par with our summer-camp
program,” Rose said.
While some have talked of using local schools to support their
activities, one school, Two Rivers Alternative School, doesn’t have the
facilities to support its physical-education program. So it uses the community
center.
Principal Tom Athanases said Two Rivers has been using Si View
Community Center on a weekly basis for eight years. PE students play in
the gym and on the neighboring ball fields, and the school
occasionally holds special events at the community center.
If Si View were to close, “It means we don’t have access to a gym, so
it would hurt our ability to provide a PE program,” Athanases said.
Other schools in the district have gymnasiums, but the Two Rivers
principal said they are usually busy during the school week. And there
aren’t many other places the school can look to.
“In a small community, you just don’t have a lot of options,” he said.
Elaine Kraft, communications director for Sims, said negotiations
on the budget continued over the weekend on into this week. She said
the county executive has heard from many Valley residents who are
concerned about the possible closure of the Si View Pool and Community Center.
Councilman David Irons, R-District 12, said a new budget should
be passed Wednesday by the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee
before being sent on to the County Council for a final vote on Friday.
When asked if he thought the new budget would contain funding for
the Si View Pool and Community Center, he said, “Yes — it’s that simple.”
He hopes the County Council and Sims can return to the
collaborative spirit both sides had before finding
out that I-722 would become law.
“Only when 722 passed … did all of a sudden everything break
down,” he said.
Irons said the County Council recognizes the importance of the Si
View Pool and Community Center.
“This is an amazing facility, and that is exactly what King County
is supposed to be doing,” he said.
Acker, who was planning to attend the County Council meeting on
Friday, agreed.
“This is such a gem in our Valley,” she said.
