Angela Lamb said the community is divided on whether the youth recreation program should be run by volunteers or a town recreation director.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
The question of whether Bronson Parks and Recreation should continue to be a program funded by tax dollars or whether it should be turned over to community volunteers wasn’t answered Tuesday night by the Town Council.
Council members voted instead to invite members of the community to a public workshop at 5 p.m. on June 17 to hash out what could be done to make the program work better and perhaps make BPR break even financially.
The regular 7 p.m. town council meeting will take place immediately after the workshop. A final decision on the recreation program is expected at the council meeting.
Councilman Berlon Weeks wants the park to run off the revenues it generates from youth and adult sports events rather than the city spending thousands of tax dollars annually to support the youth program.
Weeks said he talked to resident Joe Markham, who has found four or five people willing to take over the various sports that are currently run by city’s recreation director, Curtis Stacy.
“It is a lot cheaper and the volunteers have a lot more skin in the game if they do it,” Weeks said. “I’m of the opinion; I think we should let Bronson Youth League take over and let them run it.”
Sherrie Schuler tells council members the entire community should be involved in the decision.
Resident Sherrie Schuler said the decision by the council shouldn’t rely on one man’s opinion. She said the entire community should be involved in the decision making process because their children are involved in the program.
The Bronson Youth League was once run by parents but was dissolved due conflicts among parents. BYL was the program that proceeded the current Bronson Parks and Recreation operated by Stacy.
Parent Angela Lamb agreed with Schuler. She said the community isn’t of one mind on the issue of who should run the youth sports program in Bronson.
“The community is very split and very divided,” she said.
Half of the community doesn’t trust Markham, Lamb said.
Linda Cooper, founder of Spotlight on Levy County Government, said she wants the facts the figures on how much BPR Director Curtis Stacy earns in salary and benefits and how much of parks budget goes to pay his wages.
Cooper said she has made a public records request for the facts and figures about how BPR operates, what it costs to employ Stacy and how much the park’s budget comes from park revenues.
She also wants information on youth participation levels in BPR over the past five years.
Town Clerk Shirley Miller said the information Cooper is requesting is primarily available through Quick Books at Town Hall. She said Stacy has a small piece of the information. She will assist him in getting the rest of the data. Weeks said one of the problems he sees is that the park isn’t collecting fees from all the parents who have children in the program and the practice of giving some parents a free pass has resulted in a reduced cash flow the city has to make up with tax dollars.
“The point is we’re not collecting for everyone who’s playing,” he said.
The conversation derailed when Stacy said Weeks was inferring that he was mismanaging his budget or the concessions.
Stacy said he is careful to stay within the allotted budget from the town council and is careful about ensuring that concession stand money is accounted for.
But Cooper said she wants to see facts supporting that claim.
Miller said Stacy isn’t overspending his budget. She said he spends within the budget the council approved for him.
“He is the most organized person I have,” she said.
Weeks said he wasn’t accusing Stacy of anything and has never said that Stacy should lose his job, but at the same time Weeks said the park should be able to operate exclusively on revenues produced at the park.
Weeks added that revenues generated from park operations are falling well short of what it takes to operate of the park. He said the city can’t operate with in a deficit.
Councilman Berlon Weeks said using volunteers to run the town’s youth program would be cheaper for the taxpayers.
In the era of having a parks director, the town council has always used tax dollars to make up what it doesn’t receive in park revenues, but Weeks said that practice doesn’t make sense and isn’t good use of taxpayer revenue.
There was general agreement that some type of action was needed and soon.
Stacy said the council’s indecision about how the program should be run is driving away parents who would normally have signed up their children to play in BPR sports.
“The indecision of the last few months is hurting because we don’t have anyone in place,” Stacy said.
Councilman Jason Hunt didn’t challenge Stacy’s claim, but noted that there wasn’t a tackle football program last year because not enough children signed up and there wasn’t a soccer program either. The children who signed up for soccer had to play flag football.
Stacy might be offered a job as the supervisor of an inmate work. No formal offer has been made, but Councilman Jim Beck said that’s what he would like to do.
Stacy was asked to bring back more information about the requirements for operating an inmate program.
He previously worked for Alachua County in an inmate program.
Stacy said the program would have to be operated through the Levy County Sheriff’s Office. He would have to be an employee of the sheriff to be bonded for the job.
The town might have to purchase a van to haul prisoners back and forth from prison, and with the town’s budget apparently tight, the council doesn’t know what it can afford until it begins annual budget discussions.
Town of Bronson Regular Meeting June 3, 2019; Posted June 3, 2019
