Community Government Sports

PenMet pitches partnership plan with city

PenMet Parks wants to team up with the city of Gig Harbor to offer community aquatics programs at Peninsula School District high schools. But not everyone is eager to dive in head-first.

PenMet Parks Executive Director Ally Bujacich and Board President Billy Sehmel presented two ideas for a joint partnership at the Gig Harbor City Council’s June 18 study session meeting. One focused on a community aquatics program. The other would provide Gig Harbor residents early registration access to PenMet recreation programs and district resident pricing.

City council members and community members expressed mixed opinions on both programs, particularly the aquatics program. Some were concerned that an aquatics partnership would squeeze out other organizations’ swimming programs. Others highlighted that even earlier registration times would not guarantee that Gig Harbor residents would get spots in popular programs.

Aquatics program partnership

Bujacich said PenMet found a gap between demand and supply in available community aquatics programs. She proposed piloting a community aquatics program that would kick off in 2027 and serve an estimated 7,360 people between swim lessons and open swim sessions. Peninsula School District high school pools would host the program.

About 2,575 of those participants would be Gig Harbor residents. The program would cost $368,275 per year. The city would cover an estimated $96,275 and PenMet Parks would cover the remaining $272,000.

City residents would be eligible for the same discount and financial assistance as PenMet Parks District residents. PenMet would expect the city to reimburse it for any financial assistance provided to city residents, on top of the $96,275 it would pay into the program.

“We don’t want to duplicate services,” Bujacich said, but “we know there is demand for these really important water safety programs. In addition, there’s a recreational component. There is a physical and mental health and well-being component. So, by providing things like community swim, open swim, recreational swim, we are now opening this up to all ages and abilities for a variety of health and wellness and quality-of-life benefits.”

Mixed opinions

Hillary Jensen-Bergren and Jennifer Flonacher, coaches at Harbor Aquatics Club, expressed reservations about the partnership.

Jensen-Bergren pointed out that the club already provides swim lessons and aquatics programming to the Gig Harbor community “through a sustainable business model” and “without financial assistance.” She said that the club primarily uses high school pools — the same pools PenMet proposed using.

“We’re pretty concerned that with PenMet coming in and taking over the high school pools, that it would directly impact our established services that we’re providing to the community, which are helping to prevent drowning,” she said.

Her club is not the only community partner using the pools. While they “celebrate more access to swim lessons and other aquatics programming … we just want to make sure that we’re part of that conversation with you. And … that we’re not pushed out in favor of an organization that has no aquatics experience, has no aquatics established programming, and one that also is requiring public funding.”

A $5 million pool?

She also said that the club has already done some research on the feasibility of building a pool in Gig Harbor. The club believes it could cost less than $5 million.

“I know that sounds like a lot of dollars, and it is,” she continued. “Pools are very, very expensive. We’d love to talk to you about our plan.”

Flonacher said that $5 million to build a pool “is a very, very, very low amount of money to invest in what we believe is a really important thing to bring to Gig Harbor and that is just water safety programs in general.”

Heather Maher, a co-founder of Swim Safe Gig Harbor, which advocates for a public aquatic facility in the city, supports the partnership.

“We need all options for water safety in the area. We really need Harbor Aquatics, we need the Emler Swim School, we need the [YMCA],” she said. “I have heard as well from other families in Gig Harbor proper about the need for partnership between PenMet and the city. And this seems like a tremendous window of opportunity to find a space for the city.”

Council members were divided on the matter. Councilmember Le Rodenberg said he would have “a hard time” supporting the program, unless PenMet reaches some sort of accommodation with other organizations that need the pools. Another councilmember, Reid Ekberg, said he would support the program as long as it did not displace existing aquatics programs.

Councilmember Emily Stone said that she fully supported the idea and did not indicate any reservations.

“I hear a lot from residents in our community that need for more water safety,” she said.

Expanded program access

The second partnership option would allow Gig Harbor residents to enjoy a reduced waiting period to register for programs, after registration opens for district residents. They would also receive a one-day priority registration window before registration opens for people who live outside both PenMet and Gig Harbor boundaries.

The city of Gig Harbor is not part of PenMet. City residents face a weeklong waiting window before they may register for PenMet programs, which allows for priority registration for park district members. 

This means that some programs fill up before would-be participants can enroll. City residents have expressed frustration about the waiting window.

Just like with the aquatics program, residents would get the same discount as PenMet Parks District residents and be eligible for financial assistance.

$124,700 for 3,660 Gig Harborites

This program would cost the city an estimated $124,700 and would serve about 3,660 Gig Harbor residents. In addition to reimbursing PenMet for city resident discounts and financial assistance the city would also reimburse PenMet for any marketing costs and administrative fees associated with marketing to Gig Harbor residents.

Ekberg and council member Ben Coronado both doubted that a reduced waiting period would be helpful for Gig Harbor residents. Ekberg said that, as a parent, the waiting period is the biggest frustration for him.

“On the first reading of this, going from seven [days] to three [days] — I know that’s not going to help us,” he said. “Is going from seven to three a nice-sounding compromise, or did you actually look at the enrollment and have the data to support and tell us that yes, after three days, there still will be capacity in all these popular programs for city residents, or will they be full?”

“We unfortunately can’t guarantee there will be capacity,” Bujacich said. She explained that this was a hypothesis based on other jurisdictions’ data that shows expanding services “significantly” reduce waiting lists, but “the unfortunate reality is there are certain programs that we just simply can’t meet the demand for.”

Conversation to continue

Sehmel also noted that this second partnership option is modeled off the 16-year-old arrangement between Lake Forest Park and the city of Shoreline — “it’s not something we’re just proposing that no other entity in the community has ever done before.”

Coronado said that unless residents were offered same-day registration, he didn’t believe it would give Gig Harborites much of a leg up when it came to getting into PenMet programs.

Councilmember Julie Martin said she couldn’t make any decisions without more information about where the funds for either partnership option would come from.

Council members indicated they would like to continue the conversation with PenMet about a possible partnership.