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Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Local Issues Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Galleries Video Readers Polls O-Zone Online Games Movie Preview Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad September 9, 2005 Park maintenance budget in Talent could be bolstered by tiny tax By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings TALENT — A 30- to 50-cent monthly park maintenance fee may be added to utility bills in Talent by the first of year, the city council decided Wednesday night. “I’d rather be yelled at for having the parks maintained instead of being yelled at for not having the parks maintained,” Councilor Don Steyskal said. The parks fund relies on the general fund to fill the gap between revenues and expenditures, according to Finance Director Craig Gibons. The general fund will transfer $61,076 to the parks department this year, which is on-par with the general fund transfer each of the last four years. The majority of that money goes to maintaining the parks. “We could double the money we put into parks from the general fund,” City Manager Betty Wheeler said. “We could spend it.” The utility fee is legal, City Attorney Kurt Knudsen told city staff, and may be modeled after the Park Utility Fund approved by the Medford City Council in June. The Medford fee charges residential dwelling units, business units and tenant space each 31 cents per month to fund the operation and maintenance of beautification and right-of-ways within the city, according the Medford municipal code. The details of the proposed maintenance fee in Talent, including the rate, who would be charged and when it would go into effect, have not been worked out yet, but councilors felt they needed to find another way to support the four current city parks and two or three others in the works. “You have to pay for it somehow,” Steyskal said. “We have a new tennis court, a new basketball court. If they’re not maintained, it won’t be many years ‘til they’re not new.” Councilors considered putting a parks levy on the November ballot instead of pursuing the utility fee, but didn’t want to risk defeat. Seventy percent of Talent voters would support a parks levy and 67 percent would back a parks and recreation ballot item, according to a May 2004 survey conducted by a consultant. However, the ballot item would have been the third parks levy to go to voters in three years and may have competed with a police station renovations levy the council is also considering. “I think having two levies on the ballot is a bad idea,” Councilor Dawn Watson said, adding she wants to give the police levy a chance. Parks levies were defeated by 101 votes in 2002 and 369 votes in 2004. A levy to fund the construction of a new city hall and civic center also went down in 2004. In other business : • councilors denied a request by Farrest and Dixie Loper to remove the couple’s property from the Regional Problem Solving process. The land, with several other areas on the outskirts of town, under consideration to become an area where the city may grow in the future and municipalities in the Valley participating in the RPS process are now reviewing the recommended lands; and • the city will create an agreement with the Talent Urban Renewal Agency for a funds exchange that will help build the new city hall. The city will pay for street and waterline improvements on Home Street — an urban renewal project — with system development charges funds if the urban renewal agency contributes identical money to the city hall project. SDC funds legally cannot be spent on building projects. Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or [email protected]. --> Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.