I wanted to jump in here and give a different perspective on what is happening and try to explain some of the proposals that have drifted around the community for a couple of years.
Under Ohio Law,communities can create and fund joint park districts. Since a community Joint parks district here would involve a city and a township it should be explained to everyone what will happen if a joint parks board is formed.
The only real revenue a township can raise is with property tax and or levies similar to what we see at the school district and the fire department. So if you all want to have a joint parks board it would be further restricted because it could not be in the City of Columbus because they already have a parks department. Like wise Pickerington would have to de-fund our parks system and lease our current facilities back to the township/city joint parks board. In other words rent back what we already own.
These parks board levies must be renewed every five years and what happens if it doesn?’t pass?
What happens to our city assets that we have leased to the board if a levy in the future fails?
The city would not be able to use impact fees to support a parks board. Those fees are restricted to just the city and the impact on this city only.
Even extra commercial dollars coming into the city from income taxes could not be used for a parks board. The parks board would be restricted to the limited amount of property tax dollars assessed against the property and in the case of commercial if it is not abated.
To maintain the current funding we wall (in the City and in the unincorporated areas of Violet Township) would need to pay around 2 mils. If you all wanted a $15 Million Recreation center then the milage would be around 5 or 7 Mils. Remember there will be operating money involved.
I believe the Groveport recreation center has been funded from their general funds. I believe I recall that they are spending around 17% of their general fund monies for the recreation center. The point is it is not sustaining itself with user fees. I think the liability issues with swimming pools have been going through the roof here lately.
The Pickerington swim club is an outdoor facility and I do not believe it has 25 meter lanes. Does anyone know if the swim club has 25 meter lanes?
A few years ago I had a municipal swimming pool place on the unfunded CIP. I thought the idea would be to have at the minimum a 25 meter pool that was indoors and we could rent it out to the four high school swim teams plus others. The four high school swim teams are paying for lap time each year in the neighborhood of $100,000. If this was an indoor pool it could also be used by the seniors and the Parks and Recreation department for water aerobics and other classes that could be used by everyone in the community.
I am not sure this new swimming pool will be cost effective if a city government must do the marketing like Groveport is faced with.
By Ted Hackworth
Under Ohio Law,communities can create and fund joint park districts. Since a community Joint parks district here would involve a city and a township it should be explained to everyone what will happen if a joint parks board is formed.
The only real revenue a township can raise is with property tax and or levies similar to what we see at the school district and the fire department. So if you all want to have a joint parks board it would be further restricted because it could not be in the City of Columbus because they already have a parks department. Like wise Pickerington would have to de-fund our parks system and lease our current facilities back to the township/city joint parks board. In other words rent back what we already own.
These parks board levies must be renewed every five years and what happens if it doesn?’t pass?
What happens to our city assets that we have leased to the board if a levy in the future fails?
The city would not be able to use impact fees to support a parks board. Those fees are restricted to just the city and the impact on this city only.
Even extra commercial dollars coming into the city from income taxes could not be used for a parks board. The parks board would be restricted to the limited amount of property tax dollars assessed against the property and in the case of commercial if it is not abated.
To maintain the current funding we wall (in the City and in the unincorporated areas of Violet Township) would need to pay around 2 mils. If you all wanted a $15 Million Recreation center then the milage would be around 5 or 7 Mils. Remember there will be operating money involved.
I believe the Groveport recreation center has been funded from their general funds. I believe I recall that they are spending around 17% of their general fund monies for the recreation center. The point is it is not sustaining itself with user fees. I think the liability issues with swimming pools have been going through the roof here lately.
The Pickerington swim club is an outdoor facility and I do not believe it has 25 meter lanes. Does anyone know if the swim club has 25 meter lanes?
A few years ago I had a municipal swimming pool place on the unfunded CIP. I thought the idea would be to have at the minimum a 25 meter pool that was indoors and we could rent it out to the four high school swim teams plus others. The four high school swim teams are paying for lap time each year in the neighborhood of $100,000. If this was an indoor pool it could also be used by the seniors and the Parks and Recreation department for water aerobics and other classes that could be used by everyone in the community.
I am not sure this new swimming pool will be cost effective if a city government must do the marketing like Groveport is faced with.
By Ted Hackworth
