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Recreation and Parks presents FY2010 operating budget request; commissioners accelerate Carver Heights park work, defer several CIP projects
Summary
St. Mary’s County Recreation and Parks staff reviewed the department’s FY2010 operating budget request and a revised six-year capital improvement program: Carver Heights Park master planning was accelerated into FY2009, while Chaptico Park was deferred and several waterfront and the planned gymnastics center projects were removed from the CIP.
Department staff presented the Recreation and Parks draft FY2010 operating budget and an updated six-year capital improvement program at the Feb. 5 board meeting.
The operating budget request includes general-fund support for parks, museums and administration, plus a Recreation and Parks enterprise fund subsidy. "We're requesting in FY 2010 a little over $2,000,000" for the parks division and a total county tax-supported request of about $3.9 million, Phil (department staff member) told the board; the department projected an overall operating budget near $8.5 million including enterprise funds. Staff said the Great Mills pool cannot break even and that the commissioners included a $50,000 subsidy to help cover enterprise fund shortfalls.
Why it matters: The operating request and the CIP reflect limited fiscal resources and choices the County Commissioners will consider through March–May budget deliberations. Phil described the fiscal year as likely the county's worst since the early 1990s and said state budget actions could still require midprocess adjustments.
Major capital changes discussed: The commissioners accelerated the Carver Heights Park project into the current fiscal year (FY2009) to begin master planning and preliminary work; staff plan to involve the board and the Carver Heights community in March or April master-planning sessions. The board discussed staging a meeting at the Carver Recreation Center to solicit community input.
The board also discussed the 3 Notch Trail. Following a commissioners’ site tour, staff said the next planned phase will focus on connecting the Mechanicsville/Route 5 area to Newmarket — a roughly 4–4.5 mile section — with design funding identified for 2011 and construction currently programmed for around FY2013. Staff described estimated costs in the multi-million-dollar range and noted federal funding and review processes add time.
Several projects were deferred or removed from the CIP because of funding constraints: the next phase of Chaptico Park was deferred one year; the county removed the proposed new gymnastics facility from the CIP (the department currently rents ~13,000 sq ft under lease through May 2012); two public landing boat-ramp development projects (Patuxent River and Wicomico Shores) were removed from the six-year program until land can be identified and acquired.
Board members asked about grass-cutting budget changes, equipment replacements and how cuts might be handled. Phil said commissioners could direct specific line-item cuts or ask departments to find X percent savings; staff will try to bring recommendations to the board when possible. "It could be a specific item that they say we can't afford to do that, or it might be just saying to the department ... find 2% or reduce it by X amount," Phil said.
What happens next: County Commissioners will deliberate the operating and capital budgets in work sessions later in February and March, release a recommended budget in late March, hold public hearings around late April and adopt a final budget by the end of May. Staff will attend commissioners' sessions and update the Recreation and Parks Board monthly through the adoption process.
