JPs fail to bring concerns to recreation board

EL DORADO — Not a single Justice of the Peace showed up for the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, except for JP William Crowder, who is a board member.

Just a little more than hour earlier, some of the Quorum Court members were complaining about the recreation complex and the expenses the county shares with the city in operating the facility.

One JP, Johnny Burson, made a motion that the county dissolve the agreement with the city to fund the recreation complex and put a cap on what the county contributes to fund the operation of the complex, but the motion was not seconded.

Crowder had invited the JPs to come to the meeting to discuss any issues they had with the recreation board or the complex’s annual budget.

“We are an all-volunteer board, we don’t set the budget,” said John Turbeville, co-chairman of the complex board.

Mayor Frank Hash told the board members the city is also facing reduced revenue of nearly 10 percent, but the council still wants to support the recreation complex.

County Treasurer Debbie Ray told the board that the county has set aside $94,000 (half of a total $188,000 operating budget) minus any income from the recreation complex for next year’s budget. In 2016, the budget was $173,258, and after revenue is deducted, the county and city are going to owe about $63,000 each for 2016.

“The way it works is the city writes us a check in January for the previous year,” Ray said. That money, with the contribution from the county, is what the recreation complex uses to operate and pay salaries throughout the year.

Turbeville said when you look at the county and city budgets as a whole — $20 million and $15 million — the cost of operating the recreation complex is relatively minor.

“Big picture, we’re talking about $128,000 coming out of combined city and county budgets of $35 million,” Turbeville said. “That is like .004 percent, not even half of 1 percent, to spend on a quality of life issue that is important to our children.”

The recreation board members would also like to see a full-time manager hired to run the sports complex, schedule tournaments, and hopefully generate some income to offset the costs of running the facility, Hash said, but if that happens, the salary will have to be funded outside of the current $188,000 budget.

“We’ll have to stay below the $188,000 in 2017,” Hash said. So to fund an extra salary in 2017, the city and county would have to come to agreement on what to pay and where the money would come from.

“This is a joint venture between the city and the county,” Hash said. “The last agreement was signed in 1982. We need to learn that if there are problems, we get together and work them out. We’ve got to get this cleared up.”

No one on the committee had a date set for city finance, county finance and recreation board members to sit down together and discuss the funding, but Crowder said he hopes to get the meeting scheduled as soon as possible.

“We’ve got to get together and settle this,” Crowder said. “This is about building a better future for our children and our community.”