Colfax Metropolitan Parks District: County chooses not to back city’s proposal

The Board of County Commissioners Tuesday issued a letter to Colfax Mayor Todd Vanek and the Colfax City Council in response to the city’s proposal to form a Metropolitan Parks District that would encompass Colfax city limits and rural portions of the Colfax School District.

The county has chosen to not submit this measure to voters.

In the letter, the board detailed its efforts in the past few months to research the matter.

“Although we have never received a formal request from the Colfax City Council to take action, this has not been a stumbling block to our researching the matter. We designated county liaisons Tim Myers, Parks Director, and Mark Clinton, County Treasurer, to work with your city manager on the details of the proposal,” it read. “We researched how such an MPD would work to solve the stated goal of replacement and operation of the Colfax swimming pool and the operation of county parks (Klemgard and Colfax Trail) which reside in the proposed district.”

The letter also states that the county researched financial and legal limits of the proposal as well as bonding ability of a metro district and financial liability citizens might incur for the county’s participation.

“We have identified many areas which lack sufficient information upon which to make an informed decision that would clearly and logically support the creation of an additional taxing district,” the letter states. “Therefore we have decided not to adopt a resolution to place this measure on the ballot.”

The letter also stated the board has met with City Administrator Mike Rizzitiello and Mayor Vanek “to understand the city’s point of view.”

“We have also worked to obtain a clear vision of the MPD’s current and future mission beyond the swimming pool issue, how this project relates to the core mission of Whitman County, the potential for other towns to request similar MPD formations and what financial obligations the county could potentially incur should one or more MPDs be formed,” it said.

Commissioner Art Swannack said Tuesday morning that the board felt it was time to send the city a letter, despite not receiving a formal request yet.

“The City of Colfax stated a while ago they wanted the county to participate in forming a Metropolitan Parks District,” he said. “We haven’t received a request, but we got to the point where we felt like we needed to give them a response.”

The board voted unanimously Tuesday to sign the letter, and Commissioner Swannack drafted it Tuesday in time for the Colfax City Council meeting that night.

After informing the council Tuesday night, Vanek said although they do not like the county’s response to the proposal, he did appreciate the fact that they made a decision on the matter.

“We’re glad that they’ve been decisive,” he said. “We’d prefer a different outcome. We’d really like them to let the voters decided on whether they would like their own parks district.”

Mayor Vanek said that while the city did not submit a formal request to the county regarding the measure, they did submit a resolution.

Rizzitiello noted the council presented the topic to the commissioners in the form of a resolution the city had made, and they asked the county to make a resolution to place the proposal on the November ballot for residents in the Colfax School District. In effect, the resolution was the formal proposal.

“We gave them our resolution, and we asked for their resolution,” said Mayor Vanek. “We took the first step in passing our resolution. It was pretty clear that we were requesting a resolution.”

Mayor Vanek said the city will now weigh its options to see if a parks district is still a possibility and to come up with options for the city. He said one concern from the county was that the resolution was all about the city pool, but he said it is about much more than that, though the pool is the biggest one.