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Board asks staff to test public support for community center funding options
Summary
Staff presented three concepts for a community center (dry gym, wet aquatics, combined) and a range of funding scenarios; board members supported convening focused community engagement (focus groups, workshops, surveys) to test parcel‑tax thresholds and guardrails before moving ahead.
Andrew Windquest, director of Parks and Recreation, gave a detailed presentation on three design concepts for the Tallahassee Community Center property — a dry gymnasium, a wet aquatics facility and a combined wet‑dry option — and walked the board through facility specs, operating cost considerations and capital estimates. Finance staff outlined how different funding policies (district general‑fund commitment versus new parcel taxes) would change the district's long‑term unrestricted cash and debt‑service profile and said the district's bonding capacity assumptions had been revised based on current market interest rates.
Board members debated feasibility and optics for asking customers to fund part of construction through a parcel tax and discussed starting community engagement. Several directors suggested a front‑end focus group or volunteer community group to inform a survey; staff described a stepped process (focus group, community workshops/tabling and a summer survey) and said they would return with specific outreach materials and guardrails. No final project selection was made; staff will prepare engagement materials and present them to the board before broad outreach.
