Presenting a ballot question for the proposed Royal Gorge Area Recreation/Aquatics Center in the November election is questionable as the Cañon City Area Recreation and Park District Board of Directors prefers holding off because of impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Executive Director Kyle Horne said results from a recent community survey were “extremely positive” with 67 percent of the respondents in favor of the rec center, but that was before the pandemic hit.
“We had a very strong snapshot of the community and a 25 percent response rate,” he said. “We received three times the anticipated response rate. This means there is a lot of interest in the community for this project.”
The board said based on feedback from previous focus groups, it seems there was somewhat of a consensus that this may not be the right year for it.
“I hate to give up on all of the momentum we gained on this, and I think we’ve had a lot of support, and I think it’s growing … but it would be a tough vote if we didn’t have COVID going on,” said Jim Johnson, who is the board president, during Tuesday’s meeting.
He said a lot of people are hurting financially and businesses are taking a substantial hit.
“I think focus group aside, we are at record economic difficulties right now and the highest unemployment rate since the Depression era,” said Greg DiRito. “I personally would have a hard time going and asking for any extra money at this time because I think a lot of people are using that extra money to put food on the table and lights on in the house.”
Johnson said they will get just “one bite of the apple” and if they take the chance now and it doesn’t pass, they may not be able to present this for another 10 to 15 years.
“With the amount of construction cost escalation, for the $25 million pool we might be looking at now, we might be looking at $50 million by the time it comes up again, which is not going to help anybody’s situation,” he said.
Horne said the next four available windows to present a ballot question are November 2020, November 2021, May 2022 or November 2022.
In the meantime, the CCRD, along with partnering agencies, the City of Cañon City, Fremont County and REC, the citizens’ advisory group, will continue work behind the scenes, such as nailing down a location, finding corporate sponsors and lowering the cost of the expense to taxpayers.
“I am really hoping that by this time next year we will be in a different place and we can move forward because our community definitely needs it,” said Nick Sartori.
