King County to transfer Tahoma Pool to the City of Covington

2004 Archived News

King County and the City of Covington have come to a tentative agreement that will keep the Tahoma pool open and accessible to the public. Under the proposed agreement, the Tahoma pool will be transferred from King County to the City of Covington before the end of 2004.

“We value this cooperative effort with the City of Covington to keep the pool open and accessible to people,” said King County Executive Ron Sims. “The Tahoma pool is a great asset for the Covington community - the pool was visited more than 75,000 times last year for swim lessons, movies in the pool, exercise classes and recreational swims.”

“The Tahoma Pool is incredibly important to Covington residents,” said Andy Dempsey, Covington City Manager. “Kids learn to swim there, seniors use it for exercise, sports teams practice there, and families use it for recreation. We are pleased to have reached an agreement with King County that would keep the pool open for the foreseeable future. We greatly appreciate King County’s forthright and cooperative approach in developing a fair agreement in a relatively short period of time.”

The City of Covington will have an open house September 7, from 5 p.m. – 6 p.m. at City Hall during which the transfer of the pool will be discussed. Members of the public are invited to share their views.

The transfer of local pools and parks to cities has been a major thrust of stabilizing the finances of the King County park system, which faced significant closures two years ago due to an ongoing general fund budget crisis. A citizen advisory group created by Sims two years ago issued a blueprint for saving county parks that calls for focusing on regional assets, transferring local pools and parks, entrepreneurial initiatives to generate new revenue, and new partnerships. Since implementation began in 2002, 10 pools and 20 parks have been transferred to various cities and non-profits, saving King County taxpayers more than $7 million. The Tahoma pool is in the city’s potential annexation area. The transfer will save the county more than $257,000. As part of the pool transfer agreement, the County will give the City $250,000 to support anticipated capital improvement needs for the pool for the next five years, as well as $50,000 towards development of capital facilities on a nearby 30-acre parcel recently acquired by the City for park purposes.