North Whidbey Parks and Recreation District commissioners voted Nov. 5 to raise North Whidbey Aquatics Club (NWAC) dues by 15 percent across the board.

The date at which these fees will go into effect will be discussed at a board meeting Nov. 19.

Each participant, other than those in the Master’s group, will also pay an additional $7.50 per month which will fund the coach’s travel expenses for the year. For families with multiple swimmers, the maximum amount they will pay per month is $12.50.

The costs exclude the month of August, when the club typically takes a season break.

The motion was introduced by Commissioner Steve Hoffmire and was approved by a three-to-two majority with commissioners Donna Sue Holly and Wendy Shingleton voting in opposition and Commissioners Cecil Pierce and Sean Merrill voting in favor along with Commissioner Hoffmire.

A separate fee for the coach travel fund, Hoffmire contended, will increase transparency. Pierce agreed.

“It takes that target off of this team that so desperately needs that target to be off of it,” Hoffmire said.

Hoffmire added that increasing the fees evenly across groups will ensure those that pay more due to their more frequent pool usage, such as the Platinum swimmers, will not be discouraged by their rates being increased too drastically.

More experienced swimmers, he said, are integral to the team in part due to their ability to offer peer coaching to less experienced participants.

By 2017, NWAC is expected foot the bill for all program costs with the aid of its newly-established booster club.

As it does for all aquatics programs, the district will continue paying for overhead costs like water and utilities.

Allison Paul, NWAC swim team parent, successfully headed the effort to establish the club’s new 501(c)(3) booster club, for which the first meeting was held Monday evening.

Paul said all participants and parents were “absolutely” in favor of the booster club.

Commissioners reacted positively as well.

Paul told commissioners at a meeting Nov. 5 that she is confident the nonprofit can raise at least $50,000 per year to support NWAC.

Legally, the booster club can only raise funds to support team-specific items, Paul said, and thus cannot raise funds to assist with facility maintenance costs.

To that end, Paul proposed establishing a second 501(c)(3) non-profit, likely to be called H2O, that would be more all-encompassing in supporting the district.

“I don’t think we need to raise costs, I think we need to raise community,” she said.

“We don’t want to see the pool close its doors, nor do we want to see it flounder,” she said.

“We want to see it become a community again.”

“We have a finite population. We are Whidbey Island and we won’t get any bigger,” she added.

Unlike the Anacortes pool, which successfully sought funding aid from neighboring communities, she noted that isn’t an option for Whidbey due to its relative isolation from the mainland.

“It’s going to take manpower and positive connections to build the pool back up,” Paul said.