ELECTION: Brinnon parks: Incumbents may not file

Posted

The future of the Jefferson County Parks and Recreation District No. 2 in Brinnon is in question.

Incumbent commissioner Bud Schindler said he won’t file this week to keep his seat on the board, and he doesn’t think the other two incumbents plan to file either during a three-day special filing period that was created after no one filed for the seats. There were already two vacancies on the board, which means all five seats on the Brinnon board could remain vacant if no one files.

“It’s floundering. I can’t consider it dead until it’s officially dead,” Schindler said of the parks district on Monday. “If we can’t get some people involved, we’ll all march up to the courthouse and get appointed, but I’m kind of losing hope.”

Schindler’s seat on the board as well as those of Joy Baisch and Nichole Brakeman all were up for grabs during filing week earlier this month. No one filed. Commissioner Rick Brown also had resigned, and the board had had a vacancy. Neither Baisch nor Brakeman could be reached for comment.

Brinnon voters approved the creation of Jefferson County Parks and Recreation District 2 in November 2012, with 61.6 percent in favor. Since then, the district has paid its expenses – most notably insurance – with revenues from fundraising efforts and community donations.

Last November, voters rejected the Jefferson County Park and Recreation District 2’s first request for a property tax levy to support the entity.

Schindler said the district’s budget this year is about $5,000, although the district hasn’t actually raised that amount yet. The district also has never had any employees, he said.

Parks commissioners have been trying to offer events at Brinnon’s school, including volleyball and basketball for all ages, Schindler said.

“We had a number of activities that we’ve done and one of the things we were hoping to get involved with was the resort [Brinnon master planned resort] going in, and they wanted us to be coordinators of those activities,” Schindler said.

Schindler acknowledged that the park district was created in part out of concern that Jefferson County would create a municipal park district and include Brinnon under that parks umbrella.

“The board would like to remind the community that the parks and recreation district is an important asset to our community,” Schindler wrote in a press release he hadn’t yet sent. “Without it, the Brinnon area will likely be included in the county’s request to institute a Metropolitan Park District which will send our property tax dollars to projects outside our area,” he wrote.

Jefferson County commissioners gave up on that plan several years ago. Matt Tyler, manager of the Jefferson County Parks and Recreation, said Tuesday that he hadn’t heard anything about that.

SPECIAL FILING PERIOD

For those who may have missed the filing period – and there are several other boards with seats where no one filed, there is to be an extended three-day filing period May 30-June 1. Candidates can go to the Auditor’s Office at the Jefferson County Courthouse during normal office, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., on those days or file online between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the same days, according to Jefferson County Auditor’s Office election official Betty Johnson said.

Valerie Schindler, Bud Schindler’s wife, did not file to retain a seat on the Brinnon School Board, and a seat on the Paradise Bay Water Board Pos. 1 also remains vacant.