Why did the MAC close in summer 2025?

The MAC closed from June 2025-August 2025 because there was not enough cash to pay for operations through November 2025 (when property tax revenues are available). Every year, the MACRD receives a tax anticipation loan from Jefferson County to ‘cash flow’ the district until November. In July 2024, a large utility roll tax adjustment occurred in Jefferson County, reducing the MACRD’s general property tax revenue by $38,882 and the bond repayment tax revenue by $36,775. In addition, the assumptions built into the adopted budget used the inflated collections from 2024 as a baseline, so the total reduction to the MACRD general fund budget in FY2024-25 as a result of the utility roll correction was approximately $80,000, plus the $40,000 the debt fund was now short for making the final bond payment, making the total hit to the general fund $120,000 (or approx 10% of the total budget). As a result, the district had to use cash from the tax anticipation loan for FY2025-26 to make the final bond payment in June 2025, resulting in less cash to pay for staffing and utilities over the summer. The board decided to close the pool for the summer to have enough cash to get to November, and to use the opportunity to come into compliance with new State aquatics rules that were adopted in Spring 2025.

Why does it take so many staff for the MAC to have an open swim?

Why do the locker rooms need to be fixed?

The walls in the MAC locker room were identified as ‘disintegrating’ as early as 2011/12, two years after the pool opened to the public.  At the time, the facilities staff member discovered it and reported it to the executive director and the board of directors.  The facilities manager did “solicit quotes to replace the sheetrock”, but from future board meetings/reports it seems that no action was taken at that time.  Sometime between 2015-2017, the executive director worked with the original builder and the district’s insurance company and a settlement was reached with the original builder for using improper materials in a pool environment in the locker room, hallway, and office walls.  It seems as though those funds were spent on general operations that year and not used to remediate/fix the walls, as it looks like a project was planned for Spring 2018 to fix the locker room walls that was not completed.  In an email dated May 15, 2019, the executive director communicated to the board that facilities staff had opened up “windows” in the drywall in the locker rooms to assess the state of the walls and “found that the actual damaged areas are more extensive than originally discussed”.  He indicated that he had reached out to the Jefferson County Public Health Department and expressed that he was told that as long as it was covered/not exposed, that it did not pose a health threat and the pool can remain open.  This is all based on reviewing files and not current staff’s direct experience, so dates/details reflect what could be confirmed from researching staff notes, reports and emails.  In 2020, a project was initiated to clean up the baseboards of the walls in the locker room, hallway, and office exterior walls as an interim measure until a replacement of the walls could occur, buying the district 5-10 years of time before that project needed to be completed. 

We saw pictures of mold on the wall of an office in the summer 2025. How was that handled?

In June 2025, the facilities coordinator removed a portion of a cabinet in the first aid room and found a mold-like substance.  Based on training at a prior job, she cleaned it with bleach, treated the wall with multiple coats of mold killer primer and painted it.  At the time this occurred, staff reached out to Mountain Air Restoration in Bend, OR via a phone call and they said that they could do air quality testing in the building for an hourly rate that equated to approximately $4,000, but that they did not recommend testing for the type of mold in the building.  Jefferson County public health also confirmed that they do not do mold testing.  In addition, Vice Chair McCloskey had a conversation with the Jefferson County Public Health Director, who had reached out to OHA and received the following guidance:
“In general, we try to dissuade folks from testing for mold. There are no state certifications for individuals or companies that provide
mold testing, so there is no requirement for folks to attend any training on how to do it properly. There are also no state or national
standards on what levels of mold constitute a hazard. There are tests that can be done to identify what type of mold is present, but
most folks are not looking to identify the species, they are just looking to confirm that they have mold. If someone sees mold or smells
mold, they have mold. There is no reason to pay for testing to confirm what they already know. Their time and money is better spent
on fixing the moisture problem that is causing the mold. So we don’t maintain a list of mold testing or mitigation companies on our
website.” — Brett Sherry, Unit Manager, Healthy Homes & Schools, Oregon Health Authority

Is the MAC a clean air, cooling and warming shelter?

Yes, when weather and/or air quality conditions meet the district’s policy threshold for opening as a shelter, the MAC will open to the public during regular business hours. The Inclement Weather and Environmental Quality Policy is available here.

Why did the MACRD choose to put a permanent tax rate on the ballots in May 2024 and 2025?

The district hired a consultant to do a business plan based on the 2023-2033 Master Plan in December 2024 (see district plan documents above). The business plan found that the district needs $1.4-$1.6 million in property taxes to support the programs, services and facilities that community members identified as priorities in the master plan. The current permanent property tax rate of $0.25/1,000 (brings in approximately $290,000/year) and local option levy at $0.40/1,000 (brings in approximately $450,000/year). To put it in perspective, the MAC facility expenses for one year, without staff costs, was $285,600 plus another $35,435 for liability insurance (FY2024-25).

This financial reality means that the district could not continue to offer the same level of services, while addressing the capital maintenance needs of MAC and maintaining a balanced budget. The board of directors considered several options to fill the funding gap and chose to pursue a permanent property tax levy to create long-term sustainability, and support priorities for facilities and programming that the community identified in the master plan as important to the communities we serve. The timing of paying off the original construction bond that was levied at $0.54/1,000 in 2024, seemingly made the messaging of “no new taxes” helpful, which was part of why $1.19/1,000 was chosen for the final proposed permanent tax levy rate. If the district had gone out for a local option levy and passed it, every 5-years it would need to go out again and message that, if it failed, programs and services would be reduced (many times this is interpreted as “threatening” the public to vote a certain way). In addition, the cost of elections every 5-years is significant, both financially and from a volunteer/time commitment perspective.

To complicate matters, the State of Oregon does not provide a way to change a permanent tax rate. As a result, the district was required to put two measures on the ballot, which many found confusing. One measure was to dissolve the existing district, and the second was to create a new district with a new permanent tax rate. This solution would have set the recreation district up as a fully-functioning recreation district for years to come, and its failure has resulted in the district re-prioritizing aquatics recreation programming to ensure tax payer dollars are used wisely and for the original intended purpose of the district when it was created in November 2004.