Roughly 100 constituents attended a town hall held by the 22nd legislative district’s three Democratic legislators on Wednesday, April 29.
Most were there to advocate for the Evergreen Pool, and ask their legislators to work with them to keep it open.
The Evergreen State College plans to close the pool in June due to high operating costs and the need for major repairs and renovations.
Four high school swim programs and a variety of events and programs will be affected by the closure of the pool, located at Evergreen’s Costantino Recreation Center.
“Thank you also to everyone who came out to talk about the Evergreen pool. It is clear that public pool access is important for our community, state Sen. Jessica Bateman said in a statement posted to social media on Friday.
While she said she is “grateful to serve this engaged and passionate community,” Bateman said there is little that can be done on a state level to keep Evergreen’s pool open in the short-term.
“At the state level, our focus has been on the long-term aquatic needs of our region and helping our Thurston County cities have the tools necessary to create a public facility district for a new pool,” Bateman said. “We can request state funding in the capital budget to help support the repair work necessary at the Evergreen pool, but even if it’s forthcoming, it would take more than a year from now to arrive and does not address operating expenditure needs.”
Evergreen leaders will not decide the pool’s ultimate fate for at least another year, according to previous reporting. The college “is eager to participate in a regional planning option for public aquatics facilities,” Evergreen leaders previously said in a news release.
Representatives from Thurston County and the City of Olympia met with Evergreen State College and other local partners in early April to discuss the pool’s closure, and local leaders are continuing to have conversations about how to make a regional aquatic center a reality.
But, as of late April, there were no concrete plans for a regional aquatics solution.
The April 29 town hall was attended by Bateman and seatmates Reps. Beth Doglio and Lisa Parshley.
Other topics of discussion included the state budget, the work the 22nd district legislators completed during the most-recent Legislative session, and the work Bateman has done as chair of the Senate Housing Committee to try and reign in rising housing costs.
Olympia Mayor Dontae Payne served as the event’s facilitator.
