Planning for the Future: Recreation and the Mercer Island Community and Events Center (MICEC)

Background 

In the Spring of 2020, the City temporarily closed the Mercer Island Community and Events Center (MICEC), suspending all facility operations and recreation programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the number of facilities and recreation staff were reduced significantly. While the pandemic was the primary cause of this action, the City had been working to improve the financial sustainability of its recreation services for several years.

Current Work

A consultant-led staff team has been tasked with developing a “reset plan” for recreation and the MICEC as the community looks toward a post-pandemic future. The team, along with the Parks & Recreation Commission, has been analyzing past programs and services, revenues and costs, community needs, opportunities, and challenges. This work has helped to develop program assessment tools, focus our services to best support our community, and establish a cost recovery and resource allocation philosophy and pricing strategy, among other project outcomes.

Moving Forward

The team has developed a plan on how to begin offering programs and services as the pandemic becomes less of an obstacle and we move on to our "new normal." This strategy will help guide future recreation programming and the use of our parks system and the MICEC.

Explore this page for updates to the recreation reset process, news as we expand programs and services, and the materials shared with the Commission and Council along the way.