Snoqualmie officials are pushing ahead with long coveted plans to expand the city’s Snoqualmie Ridge community center and are seeking support of the Snoqualmie Valley School District.
Snoqualmie Mayor Katherine Ross delivered a presentation at a school board meeting last week, as the city looks to shore up financial patterns for the multimillion-dollar project.
There has been a decade-long effort to expand the facility, and with the economic challenges of the pandemic behind them, the city is re-energizing its efforts, Ross said. That includes launching a new stakeholder committee this month to determine programming needs and building components.
“The city is excited to work with partners to help fund this important project, and we are hoping to continue our conversation we started in 2019 with the Snoqualmie Valley School District about investing in this project,” Ross said during the presentation.
The city is floating a $28.3 million expansion of the facility that would nearly triple its size and add a six-lane community swimming pool, among other improvements. The center, located inside Snoqualmie Community Park, is owned by the city, but managed by the YMCA.
Over half of the expansion cost has been earmarked in the city’s capital budget. The remaining $13.1 million is projected to come from a combination of grants, county taxes, state requests and partnerships, like the school district.
The city theorizes the pool could support the high school swim teams and be used for physical education classes. Ross pitched the pool as a public safety issue, saying the “lack of aquatic space in an area surrounded by lakes and rivers is unacceptable.”
While most boardmembers appear supportive of a new pool, it is unclear yet whether they would back the project.
The school district has its own financial challenges, needing to make an estimated $3 million in spending cuts next year, according to a recent budget update. But perhaps the bigger dilemma is deciding whether a new community pool should be built in Snoqualmie or North Bend.
For years, both the city and Si View Metropolitan Parks District — which serves the upper Valley outside of Snoqualmie City limits — have pitched competing proposals.
Right now, Si View runs the only community pool in the upper Valley. Its facility, built in the 1930s, at a time when North Bend had under a 1,000 residents, is undersized and in need of repair. Last October, the pool had over 700 children on its waitlist for swim lessons.
In 2019, Si View asked the city and school district to partner on a regional aquatic facility to replace its current pool.
Prior to submitting a formal proposal, the Snoqualmie City Council declined Si View’s request, citing cost and a desired to expand its own community center, according to previous Valley Record reporting. As a result, both Si View and the city went to the school district with competing proposals for a new facility.
Since opening in 2011, the Snoqualmie Center has faced capacity issues. Due to financial constraints, the center was built at one-third of the size that had originally been planned for.
“Having funding in North Bend doesn’t help us solve what we need to do for our community center,” Ross said last week. “It was better for us to build our pool in Snoqualmie.”
Si View Executive Director Travis Stombaugh said he did not hear Ross’ presentation, but noted the projects differ in their definition of community. He also argued that since Snoqualmie’s facility is run by the YMCA, you would need a membership to access a public facility.
“When they talk about community they’re talking about only their city residents,” he said. “When Si View is talking about community we are looking at the whole Valley. Residents all the way from Fall City to the Pass.”
Although money provided by the district would be a small fraction of the total cost, Board Vice President Geoff Doy said he struggled with the competing proposals in 2019. Doy expressed worry about push-back and how it could impact the district’s support.
“I think if we come down on either side of this discussion, it might cause us some blow-back on whatever community we’re not supporting,” he said. “We’re at a point in the not so distant future that we’re going to have to pass a bond and we’re going to need all the support we can get.”
Boardmember Carolyn Simpson disagreed with Doy, saying Snoqualmie looked like it was well on its way to getting the project funded.
“The district could sit here and see what happens,” she said. “I hope that it wouldn’t happen. That our district would sit aside and say ‘we can’t participate because some adults in our community might disagree with us.’”
Board president Melissa Johnson said the pool proposal is “not a competition,” noting the board doesn’t know if it would back either project.
Besides location, the main difference between the two projects is Snoqualmie is planning to fund the facility without a voter-approved bond.
In the last three years, Si View’s board of directors has put two bonds out to voters, most recently in 2022. While each received over 56% support of district voters, they failed to clear the required 60% threshold.
With a $4 million grant awarded for Si View’s project set to expire if a bond is not approved by next year, voters could see another proposal on the ballot as soon as this year. Si View’s board has yet to approve that.
Correction: A pervious version of this story said a ballot measure for Si View’s new pool could be on the ballot next year. That was corrected to this year. Additonaly, a reference to the 2019 proposal has also been removed. We regret the errors.
