The Emery County Recreation board meeting topic for discussion was the decrease in the mineral lease monies. The mineral lease monies solely fund the recreation district. The 2015 expenditures for the recreation district was $229,830. Julie Jones, board chairman and treasurer Troy Winter, have reworked the 2016 budget to take into consideration the drop in mineral lease monies.
At the commission meeting on Oct. 20, the commissioners reformulated the way the mineral lease money will be distributed. The recreation district will get approximately $132,480.
The budget the recreation district has been working on with cuts everywhere they can be made left the budget at $146,125. This number is still higher than the projected revenues. It’s not known where further cuts would be made.
Jones went over the proposed budget cuts: no cuts to director and secretary salaries; cut out all temporary workers, these workers are mostly high school workers and spend time at the Huntington ball complex, cutting grass, preparing the fields and also helping with the fair and rodeo. Jake Atwood, director would be the only employee working at the complex.
The expenses for board members would be cut, they would no longer receive a meeting stipend of $50. They will still receive mileage to attend the meetings. The advertising budget would drop from $2,600 to $2,000. This is money used for advertising the activities of the recreation district and for any legal notices, etc. Cuts in director travel to attend the rodeo and fair conventions.
The recreation district has been in charge of the Bear Creek Campground. The proposed budget suggests the campground be given back to the county to avoid expenses associated with the campground. Supplies and maintenance at the complex, cut $1,000.
No money for telephone and internet expenses as they will now run through the county.
Checks will now be issued by the rec. office and save $5,000 accounting expenses to the county.
A $5 increase in all fees for sports will be implemented. Increase in fees will help with purchasing new and reconditioning current equipment.
Money will not be put towards the fair, the recreation district will use the money the county puts toward the fair only, usually $50,000.
There will be no town projects funded in 2016. No improvements will be made to the rodeo arena and fairgrounds, this will eliminate $2,000 from the budget.
The recreation district will not contribute to special events, in the past, they have made contributions to the Working Ranch Horse 4-H rodeo, marathons, triathlons and other related recreational special events.
The board also proposed to drop their $15,000 donation to the Aquatic Center.
Jones said with no temporary employees a lot more work will fall onto Jake Atwood and Darshell LeRoy the secretary.
Commissioner Ethan Migliori explained the Local Building Authority money could be reallocated for one year until the mineral lease money goes back up or other solutions are explored.
It was discussed that other special service districts that are taxing entities will have more options than the recreation district that isn’t a taxing entity. It was proposed the recreation district check into what would need to be done to become a taxing entity and the process that would need to be followed to allow this to happen.
Commissioner Migliori explained that parks, swimming pools, fairs, museums and like items, don’t make money, they are there as amenities and features that make a community a nice place to live. “It would be ugly if you couldn’t have youth sports,” said Commissioner Migliori.
The board recognized that $1 million was recently put into the Huntington ball complex and it would be unfortunate for the complex not to be maintained. Atwood, said he already has a hard time keeping up with everything involved at the complex and that was with the summer employees. Without them it will be even more difficult.
Winter, suggested maybe the county would have to contribute an employee to help with maintenance at the complex.
The board discussed ways to make money, it’s hard to bring in tournaments, because there isn’t anywhere for people to stay. There’s not a lot of money to be made for a facility with tournaments.
The local businesses are hit up with so many groups needing donations it’s hard to get contributions for the rodeo and the fair. The local businesses could go broke donating.
The fair and rodeo for 2016 will be June 9, 10 and 11.
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