I often think about the time I killed my daughter’s love for music. She was about nine, and I made her practice the piano enough that she hated it. I backed off, and her love for music returned with a different musical instrument. She’s turning seventeen in a few weeks and walks a path very different from where I thought she would be at this time in her life. And that’s okay. She has a lot more motivation than I did at her age, and I don’t want to smother another little bird in my hand, squeezing it too tight like I did with the piano lessons. So, we give my daughter the best foundation we can and work to support her as she flies her own path. Fly, little bird.

The Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners cancelled our hearing at 2:30 p.m. on April 14 to consider forming a Public Facilities District (PFD), a new municipal organization with the ability to levy taxes (with voter approval). The PFDs work will be an important step on the journey to build a new community pool that goes back to Making Waves in 2007 and through the JeffCo Aquatic Coalition’s (JAC) recently completed survey. We ultimately decided a PFD wasn’t the step for that day.

But make no mistake, we will need a public agency with taxing authority to get this project across the finish line. Through the Healthier Together Task Force, a consensus was also reached about how we approach this as a community. An independent PFD was chosen as the best path. Private groups just don’t have the capacity to build aquatic recreation facilities in Washington State. We will need a public agency to pursue this critical social infrastructure — but not yet.

Building a new aquatic recreation facility is a community decision that will take private and public work. Indeed, we only started to achieve traction in this project when we brought in the Healthier Together Task Force, composed of community volunteers together with municipal representatives.

We have the county and city agreeing on a path to a new mid-county pool, and a strong new partnership with the Chimacum School District in our soon-to-be Port Hadlock Urban Growth Area (UGA) where the Port Hadlock sewer is being built. JAC has been raising private funds to support a PFD using the survey and design funds to move to the next step.

Unfortunately, we did not get the requested design dollars from the state legislature, leaving a gap and a dilemma for JAC: to use their existing philanthropic funds to support a young PFD or continue to raise money and develop a site plan. JAC can engage local stakeholders to use the survey data to develop a plan and initial site design on the Chimacum Creek Primary campus. Without public dollars at this juncture, a PFD would use all that private money to just exist.

The survey has been a huge success with 18% of the Jefferson County population being counted and over 60% of the respondents receptive to a .02% sales tax increase to build a pool. There is a lot of other valuable insight to be gleaned from the nearly 3000 responses. JAC ultimately decided to continue the good work they are doing to use those funds to develop a design that is ready to hand with additional privately raised money to a fledgling PFD when the project is ripe, and the funding sufficient.

The Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners supports this plan and stands ready to contribute to the design and consider a PFD when the time is right.

I hope that potential PFD board members join up with JAC and other stakeholders for this next stage of work — which remains the same under a different organization: take the feedback from the community and move forward onto the initial design.

This is a community project that the county has had quite a bit of interface with. We need to remain agile and keep our eye on the prize, which is a new aquatic recreation facility in our new Port Hadlock UGA. Anything else is just a means to an end.

The county, like JAC and other stakeholders, needs to keep moving forward while responding to the moment we are in (with all our shared anxiety about state and federal funding opportunities).

I always work to avoid confirmation bias. We need to respond to the moment we are in, not the outcome we want to see. We don’t want to crush the bird because we’re tied to a path. People are talking about a pool. More often than not, they are excited. I’m excited, and proud to be a part of an ongoing plan to build a public pool. We have to let these projects breathe — and fly — in their own time. Fly, little bird.

Greg Brotherton serves on the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners.