Pasco voters approved a water park. How soon could it open?
After years of discussion, the planning process for an aquatic facility in the Tri-Cities is finally getting off the ground.
While the Pasco Public Facilities District board had previously commissioned studies and preliminary design, the real planning process can now begin after voters approved a $40 million sales tax bond in April.
Collection for the 0.2% sales tax should begin in January. It will come out to 2 cents on a $10 purchase. But there’s a lot that has to happen between now and its projected 2025 opening.
During a meeting this week, the PFD board spent more than an hour and a half trying to determine where to start.
Board president Mark Morrisette said the past few years of work will help inform the path forward.
“The work that we did previously, I was always wanting to use that work as a reference point should we get to today,” Morrissette said.
Because the feasibility studies were done several years ago, the PFD will need to get up to date estimates for everything from construction costs to future salary costs.
Before they can do that though, they need to decide who will be in charge of the planning process. The board is comprised of volunteers who help guide the process.
They are not employees of the city, but the district does have an interlocal agreement with Pasco for services such as legal guidance and planning advice.
“We need, as a board, a (plan) for where are we headed and how we’re going to get there,” Board member Leonard Dietrich said. “Because now we have the horses corralled.”
Other members of the board are Caroline Bowdish, Spence Jilek and Marie Gillespie.
The first major task ahead of them is ratifying the board’s charter and interlocal agreement. Currently they do not have the authority to hire an employee such as a project manager.
Pasco Community Services Director Zach Ratkai will remain the PFD’s main liaison with the city. He said the board likely has two options, which are to hire someone at their discretion or work with the city to hire.
He told the Herald that he believes the board’s preferred route would be ratifying the interlocal agreement to work with the city on hiring a project manager.
Doing so would also allow them to offset costs for the city of Pasco when it comes to legal services, planning and other areas.
“This project needs to have 100 percent attention by this person, whoever that may be,” Morrissette said.
Park location
The board also discussed potential locations for the water park in a closed executive session. Ratkai said they are looking into whether the PFD is able to enter into a letter of intent for a purchase at this time, if they do decide on a location.
Most recently an area in the Broadmoor development in west Pasco was being eyed as a possible site for the aquatic facility.
The board has until July 1 to get the necessary paperwork filed with the state to start the bond funding.
As with property tax based bond packages, such as those passed by school districts, the PFD will receive the bulk of the money up front and then use the tax collection to pay down that debt over the 25-year bond period.
With tax collection beginning in January, it will be around April of next year before the PFD starts seeing money from sales tax flow into its coffers.
Phase 1 design
If a previous schedule estimate holds, the design process will take about a year, with bidding on the project next summer and a September groundbreaking.
The construction is expected to take about 18 months, which would put construction completion around spring 2025 for the first phase of the center.
A second phase would kick off in about 10 years using funds from the center’s revenue.
Morrissette said the start up costs should come to about $475,000. Previous estimates put the land purchase at about $2 million.
