FACILITY MANAGER & RENTAL COORDINATOR CHOSEN 

The application deadline is now over.  The commissioners chose an applicant from those who submitted information.  All six applicants were interviewed and were well qualified.  The Underwood Park and Rec Commissioners are pleased to announce that Shawna Bradley of Underwood will be the new part time Facility Manager and Rental Coordinator.

The duties of the Underwood Parks and Recreation District  part time Facility Manager / Rental Coordinator will include  overseeing the management of the facilities including the gym, pavilion, and grounds. She will be responsible for all aspects of operating the Facilities including communicating with potential renters, facilitating the rental process, promoting the facility to increase rentals and assisting in the development and promotion of special events. Duties will also include managing volunteers and minor facility maintenance. She will report to the Underwood Parks and Recreation Commissioners. HS diploma, computer skills and vehicle were required; proximity to the facility and bilingual skills (English/Spanish) strongly preferred. Monthly salary of $1200 and bonus performance incentives.

UPRD minutes can be found on this web site under the Links tab, then Government  

Underwood Park and Rec Commissioners were sworn in on January 31, 2017 by Skamania County Commissioner Bob Hamlin.    On November 8, 2016, Underwood voters elected the following Park and Recreation District commissioners:  Bob Whittenberg, Ed LaMotte, Marc Robins, Blayney Myers, and Alicia Beyer.  Voters approved the formation of the Underwood Parks and Recreation District by a vote of 65% for and 35% against.  However, voters defeated the measure to fund the Park and Recreation District with a  property tax levy of .20 per $1000 of assessed value.  Over 50% of voters approved the levy, but it did not reach the 60% needed for tax measures .

History:  In January 2015 Skamania County closed the Underwood community building due to lack of funds.  Not wanting to let this happen, the Underwood Community Council (UCC) negotiated a license to manage the building and park grounds keeping them open for public use.  May 2016, marked the one year anniversary of the UCC managing these facilities. We continue to operate with a combination of grants, donations, receipts from rentals of the building, and many volunteer hours from Underwood residents

But volunteers burn out, and recognizing this, UCC’s vision was that this license to manage the property would be a short term solution, we were willing to put in the effort for two years, but after that the community would have to step up and decide to either keep this place as a public area or let Skamania County sell it as surplus to the highest bidder.

Thus the UCC formed a long-term committee to develop an action plan to find the best way for the community of Underwood to purchase this property from the county and finance the operation of the facilities. The Long Term committee’s research looked at many different options, not only did we have to figure out a way to purchase the property, but then there is the issue of maintenance costs and operating expenses. We needed to come up with a plan that wouldn’t cost the community a fortune, but would bring in enough money to operate the facilities effectively.  We worked up a budget for operations and maintenance and went from there.

The Property that Skamania County owns in Underwood contains two parcels; one includes the Community Center, the playground, and the garden area, the Post Office, and the cottage on the corner of Cook-Underwood and School House Road. The other parcel contains the horse arena, and the ball fields on the west side of the park grounds. These properties were purchased or donated over the last 100 years by the Underwood Community to house the Underwood School, gym, fire station, and living quarters for the teacher. Over the years Skamania County purchased the two parcels and operated them to benefit Underwood. For a history of the Underwood Park, click HERE .

But now the County does not want the financial burden of providing a public park for Underwood. So if the community of Underwood wants public space to use, we will have to provide for it ourselves. The big problem is the cost of purchasing the property. Four acres in Underwood are going for $250,000 and up for bare land.  There is no way that the UCC can recommend purchasing the two parcels for market value; there isn’t enough income from the Community Center and rental income to cover that expense.

But there is another way. According to State of Washington law, a government agency, (read Skamania County), can transfer ownership of public property to another government agency, (read a Park and Recreational District), for whatever sum it decides to, without putting the property on the open market.   This fact led us to an investigation of the details of forming our own recreational district to take advantage of this provision of the laws of the State of Washington. There are a number of different flavors of recreation districts outlined in the Revised Codes of the State of Washington; each has a different focus to deal with specific community needs.  For our purpose, the RCW 36.69 named, “Park and Recreation District” meets our needs perfectly, (Google “RCW 36.69” to find out the details).  To do this, Underwood would vote to create a Park and Recreation District, vote to fund it, and would choose 5 local commissioners to manage it.  Skamania County could then transfer ownership of the properties to the P & R District for a small sum.  To fund operations and maintenance we elected to use a two pronged approach. First we decided to include the Post Office and the cottage in our Recreational District so that we could use the income from those two properties to help fund the whole program.  Second,  a small property tax would be needed to guarantee that the District had enough money operate.  We have talked extensively to the Skamania County Commissioners about this plan and they support us and would be willing to transfer this property to us if we fulfill the above three steps, create the District, fund it to a reasonable level, and elect 5 commissioners to oversee its’ operation.  It would work just like our Fire District.  Our research determined that the tax levy we would ask for would be $0.20 per thousand on property.  This is $20.00 per year for a house assessed at $100,000.  My house is valued at $300,000 so my tax would be $60 per year, or $5 per month.  The income this would bring in would be around $30,000 per year, and with usage fees and income from the Post office and the cottage, we should be able to make this property something that we can be proud to own.

During the Months of February and March 2016, the Long Term committee crafted a petition to present to the Skamania County Commissioners in order to put a Park and Recreation District initiative on the November ballot. During the month of April 2016, we had 13 signature gathers canvas the two Underwood voting districts with this petition. During that time we collected the signatures of 248 registered voters who supported our vision to create a Park and Recreation District.

The petition’s goal is to put three measures onto November’s ballot.

1. Create a Park and Recreation District
2. Fund the district with a $0.20 per $1000 property tax
3. Elect 5 commissions from the two Underwood voting Districts to administer the District.

May 2, 2016 we turned in the petition and the 248 signatures to the Skamania County Assessors’ office to verify the signatures. May 4^th 2016 the Assessors’ office certified that we had collected enough legal signatures and forwarded the petition to the County Commissioners’ office.  Debbie Slack, Clerk of the Board, set a Public Hearing to take place in the Skamania County Courthouse, in Stevenson, On June 21, 2016 at 5:30 PM, in the Commissioners Meeting Room, Lower Level of the Courthouse, Room 18.

We are asking a lot of Underwood residents, and thus to be informed you need all of the information that we have had in making this decision. In that spirit, here is a listing of the documents and licenses that relate to these properties. The leases and MOU’s below will be transferred the Park and Recreation District in the event that the initiative passes in November.  In the long term we believe that the income from these properties along with the property tax levy will provide the means to support the Park grounds and Community Center for the use of Underwood Residents.

Press on any of the below to view the legal document:

1. UCC license to operate the Underwood Community Center and Park grounds
2. Official UCC petition to place an initiative on to the November ballot.
3. The USPS Post Office lease to Skamania County
4. The Stillman Lease to Skamania County
5. The Underwood Garden MOU to Skamania County.

Long Term Committee members:  Blayney Myers, chair; Linda Hardham; Marc and Barbara Robins; Cam Thomas; and Keith Fredrickson.