Focus: GE, Etowah, Armuchee parks
Consultant for master plan: Rome-floyd Parks department is ‘drastically understaffed’
Three main areas are spotlighted in a not-yet-released master parks and recreation plan for the next decade: The GE property on Redmond Circle, Etowah Park and Armuchee Park.
“We want to focus on the parks that need the most attention,” Rome-floyd Parks and Recreation Department Director Todd Wofford said.
However, big plans also come with big price tags. Wofford said the cost to fulfill all requests put forward after the department opened community surveys several months ago is pretty steep. Specifically, he said, to develop the GE property with all of the requests from the community would cost the city and county roughly $125 million.
Those requests include 12 gymnasium floors, an arcade with rock climbing walls and video games and a lease space for a restaurant.
“It would take five SPLOSTS to cover that,” Wofford said, referring to the 1-cent special purpose, local option sales tax packages that voters decide on.
For Etowah Park, the department is focusing on completely renovating and redesigning the baseball complex and adding turf fields. In addition, they want to build an indoor training facility with batting cages and resurface the tennis courts.
Over at Armuchee, staff is considering transforming the park into an RV park and campground, with a canoe launch and a camp store similar to Lock & Dam Park.
With the help of Lose Design, a consulting company that’s been working closely with parks and rec on their 10 year master plan, Wofford and staff are analyzing data collected through surveys to figure out what these areas really need.
“We just want to see what it’ll take to update our facilities right now, then grasp what the community says for SPLOST input,” he said.
At the Parks and Rec advisory committee meeting on Tuesday, Aaron St. Pierre, the director of landscape architecture for Lose Design, presented the data they collected from online surveys and in-person meetings.
Roughly 400 residents in the Rome-floyd area gave input, which St. Pierre described as a good turnout.
From the data: Residents stated the facilities they’d like to see fall under aquatic facilities, such as water parks and splash pads. It also showed the majority of people spend most of their time at Ridge Ferry Park, Etowah Park and the Town Green.
However, the survey also found that 63% of residents travel out of the county for parks and recreation facilities and services.
Another significant outcome from the survey showed the top three reasons people aren’t as involved in parks and rec are a lack of awareness concerning programs and facilities, lack of free time and safety concerns.
Parks and rec department staffing also continues to remain lower than the national average, and the department still hasn’t filled Wofford’s former position of parks superintendent.
“For the size of the community you’re serving, the department is drastically understaffed,” St. Pierre said.
While the department continues to maintain an average budget of about $4.4 million, he said, similar counties have an operating budget of about $7.3 million.
According to the consultant, the department could lower some of their fees to attract more residents to their programs, such as youth sports, but they would still need a larger staff to serve these people.
In the next steps, St. Pierre and other Lose consultants will meet with staff to create a final report for the parks department, detailing the staff size they need to operate, what parks need attention and what the parks department should do moving forward in the next 10 years.
This report is expected to be presented to the public in September.