Ozarks Regional YMCA officials want the public to know that they believe the construction of an east-side family fitness center is a waste of taxpayer money.
In response, Springfield-Greene County Parks Director Jodie Adams said the $7 million revenue-bond project has been planned for years and is designed to serve the needs of Greene County residents who live east of U.S. Highway 65.
Ozarks YMCA CEO Brad Toft said Park Board officials assured YMCA administrators in 2006 that construction funds for the Dan Kinney Family Center would come through the countywide tax renewal for parks that will come before voters in August. He said he was dismayed to learn recently that construction would begin in July, a month before voters could weigh in on the need for the project. Voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax to fund $50 million in Park Board projects in 2006.
In the Parks Department’s 2006 five-year action plan, infrastructure development, design and land acquisition for “Family Center East” is listed as a $1 million project. At the time the action plan was approved, YMCA hired Tampa, Fla.-based consumer research company Seer Analytics for a site analysis study to determine the need for a family recreational center in east Springfield. The study found only 1 percent of the Kinney center’s service area would be outside of the two YMCA location footprints, defined as the area where 80 percent of YMCA members live.
But because Toft believed taxpayers could decide for themselves this year whether the project had merit, YMCA withdrew its concerns in 2006, and did not oppose the N-cent sales tax measure. Now, however, the YMCA is producing pamphlets and posters in-house voicing its opposition.
“We don’t believe a government entity should be trying to compete with a private or nonprofit organization,” Toft said.
Adams said the Parks Department serves the entire county and that commissioned research can find outcomes consistent with certain desires. Adams said the Park Board has a variety of funding options and it chose revenue bonds to cover the costs of the east-side center. The Greene County Commission approved $7 million in special obligation Parks building bonds on March 31.
Adams said the department has held at least six public meetings to discuss the family center and the preferred funding mechanism. “We have no facilities east of Highway 65, and this is our only park,” Adams said, noting 2010 census data revealed 28,000 residents in unincorporated Greene County east of the six-lane highway. The park and family center would serve those residents, as well as many living south of James River Expressway, she said.
Adams feels city officials have been transparent about the need for a third public facility in the county since the 1998 release of the Vision 20/20 initiative. The long-range plan called for the Doling and Chesterfield centers – which were funded by 2001 tax revenues – and a third facility to serve center city. But Adams said Parks officials in the mid-2000s determined center city already was well equipped with fitness options and began looking elsewhere.
She said it determined that the eastern part of the county had the most need, and that led to the development of the park at 2701 S. Blackman Road, named after 30-year Parks Director Dan Kinney.
The park is planned in three phases. Construction on infrastructure and park amenities began in late 2010, and in April, development began for the Miracle League ball field for disabled youth, funded with $200,000 in donations. The final phase comprises the family fitness and aquatics center, similar to Chesterfield Family Center, with a July 2012 completion date.
The Parks’ “Mil” tax, which is assessed on property and represented 15 percent of its fiscal 2011 revenues, is one of two taxes to fund Parks operations and projects. The quarter-cent sales tax, which was first approved in 2001, and then extended by voters in 2006, represents 43 percent of the fiscal 2011 Parks budget. A portion of revenues generated from the 2001 tax would be used to pay the debt service on the bonds to build the Dan Kinney Family Center. Debt service payments represented 1 percent of the department’s $34 million in fiscal 2011 expenditures.
According to the Park Board’s 2010 annual report, the Mil tax and countywide sales tax generated roughly $20 million in revenue in fiscal 2011. The Parks also received nearly $500,000 from the city of Springfield’s general fund, but Adams has maintained in recent years that the Park Board should be self-sustaining through sales taxes, fees and grants by fiscal 2013.
“We haven’t heard from them in five years on this,” Adams said of YMCA concerns, though she did acknowledge a recent meeting with YMCA officials where they expressed their opposition to the plans. “We have no secrets. We’ve been very transparent.”
Toft said the Park Board developing the center without a direct nod from voters may be legal, but it’s wrong. He said the before- and after-school child-care programs introduced through the Doling and Chesterfield centers were among the reasons YMCA officials did not publicly oppose those facilities. But the construction of a third center, which he described as only a six-minute drive away from the YMCA’s south-side center, in less than 10 years is too much for the area to absorb, he said.
“It’s duplication of services, and it’s just wrong,” Toft said.
Parks’ Information Director Bob Nelson said the Park Board was crafting an official response to the YMCA’s public opposition to the Dan Kinney Family Center. That response would likely be introduced during the Park Board’s May 13 meeting.
Nelson said the Chesterfield center has 8,858 members and the Doling Center has 1,189 members, but that certain privileges were extended to all members.
Nelson said the Mil tax had been in place on property for at least 50 years, and equated to $34.70 per year on a $100,000 home. He said the ballot language on the renewal of the Parks’ quarter-cent tax for an August vote would not be determined until at least May 16.[[In-content Ad]]
