[Guest Op/Ed Post by Mark Joselyn, Si View Metropolitan Park District Commissioner, 2003 – present, North Bend City Council since 2022. Susan Kelly, Si View Metropolitan Park District Commissioner 2003-2011, 2016-present and Linda Grez, Si View Metropolitan Park District Commissioner, 2008 – 2019 – Views expressed are those of the authors, not the Living Snoqualmie website. You may submit letters to the editor or opinion posts to info@livingsnoqualmie.com]
Our beautiful Upper Snoqualmie Valley continues to beckon newcomers who move here and come to call it home. Welcome. Other folks have lived here for a long while – some for generations. Hello to you. Let us share the story of one of our most beloved community places – Si View Pool – how it got here, the lives it has changed, and why it is ready for ‘retirement.’
Funding its replacement offers an opportunity to pass on a legacy to future Valley residents and to build a modern facility to better meet our community’s need and demand for access to aquatics for all ages and abilities.
Si View Pool, in North Bend, has served generations of Upper Valley residents. It is a legacy left to us by the federal Public Works Administration established to help pull our country out of the Great Depression. What an incredible gift it was, and continues to be, to our community.
Opened in 1938, Si View Pool has greatly benefited us and our predecessors. Generations of Valley residents have learned to swim at Si View Pool. Hundreds of high school students have been trained as lifeguards there. The pool was built to support the population of a small logging town. We know swim lessons save lives, yet hundreds of Valley children and adults are waitlisted at the Si View Pool every session, hoping for an opportunity to learn this important life skill.
The community has outgrown our pool, but what a gift those who built our current Si View Pool left to us! A pool that is both too small to meet demand and too old to be kept running. Its cracked shell and ancient mechanical systems are costly, relying on obsolete parts. Our pool is on borrowed time.
The summary of this narrative might be encapsulated in this brief tale of well-known valley icon Gardiner Vinnedge. Gardiner, a long-time and deeply revered Valley resident and historian, died recently at the age of 72. Gardiner lived most of his life in North Bend and invested endlessly in others. In 2013, he was named North Bend Citizen of the Year.
Gardiner was one of the five people initially elected to the Si View Metropolitan Park District (SVMPD) Board of Commissioners in 2003. At an early meeting of the Board, Gardiner told a story; he was a historian after all. He explained with a grin that when he was growing up and had his first chance to ride his bike alone to go anywhere, it was to ride to the Si View Pool.
Si View Pool was built by local folk working for the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Public Works Administration. There were about 600 residents in North Bend when the pool opened in 1938. King County operated the park and the pool for decades. At some point, the balcony around the gym and the window looking down on the pool were closed.
In 2002, a change in vision prompted by limited revenue for parks led King County to divest its smaller local parks and community centers. Sixteen pools throughout King County were threatened with closure. Many did close, including the Si View Community Center and Pool. It was shut down and boarded up. King County walked away. This Center and Pool had never been shut down before.
In response, citizens of the Upper Valley came together to save our beloved Community Center and Pool. They organized a ballot proposition to form the regional Si View Metropolitan Park District, a taxing district like a school district or fire district, imbued with certain powers and authority under state law.
The measure to create the Park District passed with a remarkable 73% approval in February 2003. Our community responded to the closure by voting overwhelmingly for the creation of the Si View MPD with a mission to reopen, protect, and preserve Si View Park and Pool.
This is the mantel the Si View MPD took up when it was created over 20 years ago. It has grown to serve thousands, hosting 189,766 visits in 2022. The focus from inception was to not bite off too much, to listen carefully to residents, and to do things well. This includes the provision of quality programming and maintaining functional, well-cared-for facilities.
The Si View MPD works hard to survey and listen to constituents and user groups in its efforts to improve the quality of life for those who live, work, and play in this beautiful Valley. The Park District has grown to manage multiple facilities and persistently strives to promote and maintain green infrastructure in our community, like trail connections, trail access points, and park facilities.
It has done all this while managing its finances to earn an AA bond rating and receive consistently clean state audits. There is a rich and precious history to the commitment this Valley’s residents have devoted to creating, maintaining, and growing our community and the Si View MPD. It is a legacy for all of us. Thank you.
Comments
As a North Bend resident and user of the water exercise programs at the Si View Pool, I have come to love and appreciate our local public swimming pool and the history of how it came to be and then saved from closure. I also recognize that If we do not take action to replace it this November, a gaping hole will exist where there once was access to recreational and health benefits for all ages and abilities. To preserve and improve public swim access in our community, please join me in voting yes on Proposition 1 on November 7.
I commend the Si View Metropolitain Park District for their work to share and educate Snoqualmie Valley residents on the history and importance of the community pool. When I arrived in North Bend over 25 years ago the existing pool was already oversubscribed in demand and being held together with “baling wire and bobby pins”. Both my daughters received their lifeguard training there and went on to lifeguard and teach for many years. They learned as much as their students. While King Co. walked away from the Sit View facility, our community stepped up to create and continually support the Si View MPD in the services they provide. But the time has come. Speaking for myself, I personally believe now is the time to support the construction of a new pool facility and am thrilled it will be in North Bend where it is accessible and walkable to all.
Rob McFarland
Mayor, North Bend
I agree that there is a need for a new pool facility to replace an aging facility and a growing community. I however plan to vote no on proposition 1 because the proposed plan for a new pool facility is way too broad and expensive for the needs of the community. If the proposal was simply a newer, larger pool, I would vote for it in a heartbeat. I believe others would as well. I suggest scaling down the new facility proposal if you want it to pass. Otherwise, prepare for bill after bill to be voted down by the people in the community.
Please come to the informational meeting w/aquatic industry expert and bond finance advisor to get concerns addressed. We commissioners and staf have worked diligently and judiciously to design a newer, modern pool to meet the current needs of our diverse community, and do not understand what parts seem frivolous or not thought out by some.
Si View New Pool Informational Meeting is Weds. Oct. 11th @ 6:30pm at Si View Community Center. Please come and ask industry experts about the facility & funding details.
I wish their were water exercise classes in the evenings for those of us who work office hours. I would love to see a new pool with an additional warm water pool for those of us who need to do water exercise for medical reasons but have difficulty tolerating cold water. Bellevue used to (probably still does) have a second pool for this purpose. It was also great for teaching the really little babies how to swim, but please let us have an hour in the evening. It would honestly change lives.
I am from Snoqualmie with 5 grandkids in North Bend. I have taught 4 how to swim and my 2 year old is next. We traveled to Issaquah to do so thus far, I would take them anywhere. However, now is the time to hopefully take them to a new aquatic center in North Bend. Water is a different and can be a dangerous environment. The confidence that comes in being safe and then having fun in the water is an exceptional experience for all especially our young ones. Learning to swim doesn’t begin in a river or lake. The fundamentals begin in a pool, one that is accessible to all. This is the time for our community to invest. It won’t come again. Thank you.
Si Views programming and swim lessons are wonderful and I would really like to see a facility that will be able to cater to the needs of the community and the high school.
I worry that the lack of regional aquatic centers will turn this pool, if built and financed by valley tax dollars, into a regional aquatic center. Hosting swim meets and tournaments are fine but doing so takes water time away from the community that is paying for the pool.
Build it in the ridge.
Vote the real estate mayor out.
Thank you so much for publishing this valuable perspective! I have always valued our incredible community — a community where young people have safe and healthy places to play and gather, a community that believes we should pass on something better to the next generation, a community where everyone can learn to swim and enjoy the water safely, not just those who can afford a private club.
Not only would a new community pool promote water safety–in a valley surrounded by rivers and lakes–it would provide a place for us to gather, for youth and adults to participate in healthy activities, and a unique employment opportunity for our young people. Please don’t let this opportunity pass us by!