Fort Walton Beach Council minutes — 06-12-1977 Regular — reading text

questionnaires back. From that, different. ' ones had opinions about pros versus mana- ' gers. From this type of study, I have been over to Pensacola and talked to Red. He left the impression with me that they are not breaking even on the center. They do not have a maintenance man. Please look at their facility. I hope we can  7- 1:L~' 17 73 do better than that. Everybody I talked td, it is a losing proposition on the centers. They are not breaking even on the centers. What we based ours on is these questionnaires and then we came back and tried to make a budget on what we I thought the utilities and maintenance would be. This is something new in Fort Walton Beach. We have more people to think about than just the people who play 24 hours a week. When you get to the tax dollar, you have to think about everyone. Our budgets have been cut back. If the tennis center does not break even, it cannot come from the Parks and Recrea- tion budget. We are trying to get a realistic budget. All I am asking is to give it a try. We have got to be on a break even basis. Dr. Rhodes said, I have met Buddy and talked with him. I know that the work Council has put into the planning and arrangement of the court has been tre- mendous. I have over a period of time been trying to analyze the approach we can take to make sure that we don' t walk into the pitfalls that we don' t know about. If we get all the input we can, we still are apt to overlook many points. Somewhere along the line, we might con- sider securing expert advise from people who are in the business. There are tennis planning people, who will take any peri- meter you have and mold it into a workable plan. I think somewhere along the line it may be well to look into this. I would like to see a committee consider paying some fee to people who are in the business. I am afraid we will try to base our decis- ions on predjudices of other cities that may not apply to us here. Mr. Rigdon replied, we have pros and cons about the tennis center. I think Council I has done an outstanding job for where we are at the present time. We have come up with some recommendations we can all live with. 4- 6 months. Please let us go for the next You people are only con- cerned about the tennis center. We are going to have to raise some fees. I am interested in pay as you go. Give us four months. Give us a chance to work at 74 7-/~- 71 it for the next four months. Let the tennis committee work for the next three months. Give us a chance. If it doesn' t work, we can change it. I think you should give us an opportunity to do that. We will work with you if you will give us a chance. Tom Risalvato said if we four months go under the rates you have now, it set appears that the majority of us who play tennis now will play on the same courts we are now using or we will not be able to play at all. You are talking about eight to nine months of total slack time. I am aware that the Golf Course has annual members. I think the hourly rates are fine for the people who play infre- quently. Mr.Rigdon answered, we can give you a membership, but we will have to give it to you at $ 300 - $ 400 a year. I am just saying you people give us a chance. Mrs. Tashick said it is not fair to J. an compare the Golf Course with this tennis center, because the maintenance for the Golf Course is much different than what it would be for the tennis center. You say we are only interested in our own interests. Dr. & Mrs. Rhodes have a tennig court in their own back yard. If they are only interested in themselves, why are they butting their heads to work for this center. They don' t need the center. Mr. Baughman said, I know very little about tennis, but why could you not play 2- 3 hours on the championship courts and do all your practicing on the free courts? Dr~ Rhodes said that their primary inter- est is in the children. What I can visualize for the City is a facility where the little kids are coming off the streets and onto the tennis courts. What thrills us so much is the character that tennis develops. They are learning sportsman- ship. This thing has got to be designed so that these kids can be out there all day. It is a fine, outstanding sport for children. Out of this, we will develop  7- 7775 12..: some good players from this area. We work hard and we are in the district competition from Fort Walton Beach School and Choctawhatchee. We have been winning at district, but we lose out at state level because we don' t have this central I tennis complex that builds this good type of player. It isn' t so much for any of us. We are using that only to demonstrate that if we can' t pay the prices, how can the children pay it? Mr. Baughman said we still have the res- ponsibility of paying the expenses of this court. Why don' t the people who are spending 15 hours a week, play on these courts a couple of times a week and play the rest of the time on the other courts? Dr. Rhodes said you will be surprised at the extra tennis activity you will have from this central center. We have got to get some people together. Mr. said, you apparently have Baughman not seen the new recommendation from the Superintendent of Recreation. It repre- sents a distinct reduction for the teen- agers. Dr. Rhodes replied, if you charge $ 100 for membership for one year, you would need 425 members to make your $ 42, 500. You will get your members. Also, I think we need to give the people in the area preferential treatment, because they will have to put up with the lights and the traffic. We have taken away a playground area and not replaced it. I presume that at the recreational facility, there is a playground planned. Mrs. Anderson answered Mr. Baughman' s I question about playing on the other courts part of the time. She said, it would be a treat to play in the evenings at the new CQurt. The whole point is that the center cannot run itself if the people only play 2 - 3 hours a week. They need to have things like group clinics or round robins. It is too expensive to go there except as a treat. But you will have to have people there all the time. 76 7- lz- 17 With lower rates you will get more people to come. Tom Risa1vato said everyone will start practicing on the other courts. I deal in bookkeeping. If there is a budget of $ 42, 500, I think that you could pro- bably get 200 - 300 memberships and you would have a fixed amount in your budget. Now you just have an unknown. If you started a campaign to get memberships, you would have your quota. Dr. Houghton answered that three of the items on the petition are being taken care of. As far as the program being arranged for the kids and the classes, they are definitely in the plan. I think one thing, as far as the Pensacola mem- bership fees, they have a larger area to grow from. They have six more courts and a lot more people. Therefore, they could come down on their fees. I don' t think any of us have discounted the possibility of membership. I feel that these overhead fees may be a little high and they can be cut. But we don' t know what we will be confronted with as far as expenses. I think the main interest yesterday was concerning the kids. If you say you can get 400 members, we ought to have enough people who would play a couple of times a week to keep the thing going. I think you will find that we are willing to work with you. I would like to see if you can come up with a list of people who would pay a membership fee. Mr. Hunt said, it is a pleasure to see this many people down tonight and your interest in City government. The member- ship fee that we are speaking of, I am basically opposed to membership fees. I think that a person needs to pay as they play. That is what I am accustomed to doing. I think that is the only way we will be able to manage the affairs of the City government. The budget has been discussed and it is like anything else, the budget is proposed. We know basically what our expenses will be. It could be that Buddy will have a person already employed by the City who will be doing maintenance work out there, but his  7-(.<. -77 77 time will have to be charged out there. We haven' t gotten into the new recommen- datiDn that has come back from the commit- tee. Steve Espy said, lets talk about the Golf I Course. Does the City plan to raise the green fees? And what about the softball complexes. I think you should look at the entire Recreation Department. Dr, Rhodes explained that we are all basically against a membership fee system. I would like to request that Council develop a reasonable annual fee that you Can count on as collected ahead of time.