Bingham County Recreation District proposal fails, meaning it could be the end of the Blackfoot pool - East Idaho News
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Bingham County Recreation District proposal fails, meaning it could be the end of the Blackfoot pool

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BLACKFOOT — A proposal to create the Bingham County Recreation District has failed, which may mean the end of the Blackfoot swimming pool.

The Bingham County Recreation District needed a simple majority to pass. It failed, only getting 45 percent in favor of the vote. Former Blackfoot Mayor Mike Virtue told EastIdahoNews.com in a previous interview that if the proposal failed it would most likely be the end of efforts to save the Blackfoot pool.

The taxing district would have added a permanent .04 percent levy to the property taxes of those within the district. That would have been $40 per year for properties valued at $100,000. The district would have encompassed residents in Blackfoot, Firth and Snake River school districts.

RELATED: Blackfoot Pool bond fails after third time on the ballot

Virtue said any further effort to save the pool would involve either the county commissioners approving a bond to go up for a vote or taking another shot at creating a taxing district. He said he didn’t think either one of those is likely to happen.

Virtue hoped that instead of a bond that went to the entire county for a vote, a taxing district made up of people more likely to use the pool would have had a better chance of passing.

There were three previous efforts to pass a bond to pay for the pool. All three bonds failed to get a supermajority of the vote.

The most recent bond of $3.9 million failed to get the needed 66.7 percent favorable vote in November 2018.

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