EVANSTON — The Evanston Parks and Recreation District held the first of four special election tax informative town halls on Monday, Oct. 6, at the rec center’s multipurpose room. About a dozen curious voters were in attendance to ask questions and learn more about the proposed aquatic center project.
“The goal of tonight’s meeting is to provide some accurate information and to answer questions, encourage community dialogue on the one percent specific purpose excise tax,” Rec Center Director Kim Larson said as she greeted attendees.
“We know that people have strong feelings about this topic, and that’s OK,” she said, imploring participants to exercise civil and respectful discourse, while noting that the forum was not an opportunity to protest. “We’re here to have more conversations ... we’re neighbors first.”
The concept of the proposed aquatic center is two years in the making, in part, Larson explained, due to the current state of the 41-year-old pool, which was detailed in an article in last week’s Uinta County Herald.
Outlining ongoing fundraising efforts and grant research, Larson announced that a $250,000 pledge to be paid over three years was offered by the McKinley family, contingent upon the passing of the tax. Patriarch George McKinley’s ties to the community began when he purchased First National Bank in 1989, renaming it First Bank of Evanston.
The Horse Palace has pledged $25,000 and Union Tank Car Company offered $2,500 in addition to other private donations. “That continues to go on behind the scenes,” Larson said.
Larson clarified that this is not a property tax. The current sales tax rate is 5%. If the measure passes, it will increase to 6% for however long it takes to raise the funding. Larson also asserted that the sales tax does not apply to groceries, prescription drugs or gasoline, the latter of which has its own specific tax.
“Your utilities do have sales tax,” she said. “Your electric, your gas bill will have sales tax ... if you go buy a car, that is one big purchase people need to think about.”
Larson said that, to her understanding, the tax could go into effect beginning April 1, 2026, “which is the first day of the next financial quarter,” she said. Collection ends as soon as the project is paid off.
There was some confusion about whether the tax would go away in each particular community if an individual municipality’s projects were paid off quickly. Larson reiterated that it was a county-wide tax, based on per capita, so each municipality would continue to pay the sales tax until the entire $40.6 million dollar price tag is paid in full.
Larson said loans could be taken out to begin construction, but the design and development phase could take up to a year. Breaking ground on the aquatic center project wouldn’t likely happen before spring 2027.
Resident Ving Simpson asked, “Are there thoughts about having a back-up plan?”
Larson explained that she’d done previous research into a municipality tax, “but you’d have to pay it off in two years,” which was entirely unrealistic for the scope of the project, she said.
Tyson Brooks, who started a community Facebook group, said “many residents have expressed concerns about the current condition of the pool and have asked why it seems to have fallen into disrepair.”
Larson explained that, in addition to its advanced age, “back in the ’80s, there were some design flaws... For instance, the location of the pump room should be on an outside wall” versus centrally-located indoors without ventilation. The close-quartered chemical storage within the pump room is also causing expedited corrosion and rusting.
“We have inadequate airflow,” she said regarding the HVAC system. The pool’s backwash system is also incorrectly designed, causing occasional flooding of the pump room. The foundation is uneven which has caused inadequate draining, Larson said, which has sped up deterioration.
“The hot tub should be installed in an outside area, not in a confined space,” she added.
Larson admitted that many of the concept’s proposed ideas were modeled after the pool in Pinedale, including ample seating for a capacity limit of 450 people.
“It’ll have enough seating to host big, regional events,” in addition to having a concession stand, she said.
“Having meets can bring in great revenue,” she said. The last such event, according to Larson, was a High-Altitude Swim Club (HASC) meet held at the high school pool that brought in $5,300.
“Each swim meet could bring in anywhere between $5,000-$8,000 per meet, depending on how big it is,” she said.
Larson also said the new center could offer high-altitude training opportunities for elite athletes and potential water polo activities. The deep end would be 13.5 feet deep and the shallow end would likely be between 3.5 and 4 feet deep. The zero-depth entry of the recreational pool would go to approximately 4 feet and would be Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant. “That way you can hold water aerobics...those classes are wildly popular here,” she said with users of all ages and ability levels.
Current specs include elaborate accessories, such as the slides and water-park-like features, but Larson said future fundraising efforts or grants could help pay for those if they become too spendy during the initial building process.
“A scaled-back version of this was considered,” Larson said. That version, she said, included one, combined lap/competition pool and a recreation pool.
“The problem with that is you lose your multi-use factor,” she said. Lap swim or competitive meets would shut down recreational pool play for the community and vice versa.
Another issue with a singular pool? “The pool temperature — it means a lot,” Larson said.
Competitive swimmers enjoy a cooler pool temperature of 80 degrees. Families with small children, casual swimmers and the elderly prefer a warmer 94 degrees. It would take days to alternate between a 14-degree spread, in addition to the added stress of frequent mechanical demands.
“We decided it was better for the long run — for the community — to have two different pools,” Larson said.
Due to construction material and engineering advancements, Larson informed attendees that the new pool’s predicted lifespan is at least 50 years.
“The new facility will be much more efficient, as well,” she said, saving the entity thousands of dollars in monthly repair costs.
Larson also presented a fiscal report conducted by the Wyoming Office of Tourism detailing quarterly leisure and hospitality figures utilized with information from the Wyoming Department of Revenue. The report, which included data from April 1 through June 30, indicated that 34% of Uinta County’s sales tax revenue from the last quarter was brought in by out-of-state and out-of-town visitors. Larson said she expects that figure to decrease heading into the winter season, but indicated that tourists and travelers could potentially pay up to a third of the tax measure’s price tag during busier months.
Finally, Larson clarified that the land for the aquatic center does not need to be purchased and is not included in the $28.8 million project cost.
“That land would be gifted by the City of Evanston,” she informed attendees.
Early voting at the Uinta County Courthouse began Tuesday, Oct. 7, and will be available daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Nov. 3. Election-day polls open Nov. 4. Larson and other pertinent parties affiliated with each community’s projects will host three more town halls at 6 p.m. at the Mountain View Library on Oct. 13; 6 p.m. at the Lyman Library on Oct. 20; and a final forum at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 27, at the Rec Center’s multipurpose room.
“Every dollar collected can only be used for projects listed on the ballot,” Larson said. “We’d like to make it as sustainable and cost efficient as possible, and there will community input when we start getting more into design.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story said the McKinleys pledged to donate $250,000 per year for three years; however, the pledge was for a total of $250,000 to be paid over three years.
