Twenty-five percent of the 650 voters who filled out the survey last fall, the majority of whom say they will very likely vote in this year’s election, are leaning against bonding.
Basin Recreation District Director Dana Jones says given the results, it’s unlikely the district will have something on this year’s ballot.
“I know the public is very leery about raising taxes right now,” Jones said. “We did do a statistically valid survey and determined that a third would vote for it, a third won’t and a third is that movable middle that we might be able to convince. But we've pretty much decided that going for a bond this year, especially a big bond, which would be needed to develop really the kind of facility that we're hearing people want, isn't probably a good idea this year.”
The survey goes on to find that once respondents learned about the total cost of the bond ($50-70 million), opposition increased two percent from 49% to 51%. But once learning about the specifics, including the total household cost, what kind of improvements would be made and where they would be built, those against it dropped down to 41%.
Many of the respondents, 29%, say most of all, they want outdoor groomed winter trails, an indoor rock-climbing wall and an indoor pool for lap swimming.
Items they don’t care to support are outdoor turf fields and playgrounds and drop-in childcare. If open space funding was added, 28% of those who are undecided say that would make them more likely to support the bond.
Jones says the board will go back and look to see how some of the improvements could be phased in the Silver Creek Village area.
“How can we do a few things now with funding that we have? How can we work with the county? How can we work with some of our partners to say, you know, maybe we don't have to bond or maybe we don't have to bond for as large of a bond and we can get things like grants or funding from other places and really try to better manage the public's money. And make sure that whatever we promise if we do bond, we do build, because I know that's been a problem in the past.”
The Silver Creek Village development plan she adds is still being worked on. Jones hopes to have that out to the public in the next month or so.
You can find the results of the survey here.
