Council eyes recreation projects, finishes budget review

Giving Maricopa residents more recreation opportunities was again a main topic at Thursday night’s meeting as the City Council discussed the proposed budget for next fiscal year and how the city should go about creating facilities such as a skate park and aquatics complex.

In November, voters approved a $65 million bond measure for parks and recreation projects, including a $20 million regional sports complex that could be started in fiscal year 2010, which begins July 1 this year, and a $16 million recreation and aquatic center that was slated to start construction in 2011.

The idea of pushing up the recreation and aquatic center was brought up during budget talks in the past few weeks, with the city looking into starting to build the facility over the next two years.

Mayor Anthony Smith said the proposal of starting the recreation center first was in part a reflection of a resident survey in which 47 percent of the respondents were in favor of the facility, compared with 37 percent wanting the sports complex.

“It’s really not accelerating the recreation and aquatic complex. We’re looking only on switching priorities,” Smith said. “… I think we need to move as quickly as reasonably possible in order to fulfill what our voters told us.”

City Manager Kevin Evans said if the project goes forward this year, the $16 million in bonds, which would be covered by a secondary property tax, would likely not be issued until 2010, with homeowners potentially not seeing an increase in their tax bill up to 18 months after the bonds are issued.

The city has already earmarked $38,000 from its capital improvement plan for the construction of a skate park in fiscal year 2010. Both Smith and Evans proposed incorporating the skate park into the recreation and aquatic center, but Councilman Carl Diedrich said there was an immediate need to provide the city’s children with recreation opportunities quickly.

“It’s going to take a long time to build an aquatics center and community center. A $16 million facility does not get built overnight,” he said. “We have to serve citizens’ needs in both the short term and the long term. Though a $38,000 skate park may not be much, it may be a bridge to a better facility down the road.”

The council also discussed eliminating the recently approved contract with lobbyist firm Landry, Creedon & Associates in the nation’s capital (see related story) . Smith said the lobbyist, which costs Maricopa $120,000 a year, had made inroads into seeking federal funding for the grade separation project at state Route 347 and the railroad tracks.

“I think the work of the lobbyist is critical until we see if they bear fruit or not,” Smith said. “At this time, my opinion is it’s too early to pull the plug.”

The council finished hearing the budget reports from city departments and is now scheduled to vote on the tentative budget at Tuesday’s regular meeting, with final approval slated for the end of June or early July.