PARCnassau

Park Advocacy & Recreation Council of Nassau. A coalition of 150 park advocacy and/or user groups with a combined membership of over 250,000 county residents.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Update of Nassau Park Fees

The parks budget which includes increased fees will not be on the agenda for tomorrow's (Oct 6) committee meetings. Apparently the administration and the legislature are still "batting it around." We will check on whether it will be part of the full legislative hearing on October 18th and let you know.

There is no procedure to withdraw or cancel the park budget ordinance. If they choose not to pass it, they will either not include it in the final version they do vote on or they will vote no on it separately. A strange system, it would seem. In any case it is important that we keep the pressure up and insure the legislators know we are firmly against the proposed budget. Our reasons:

To insure fair and equal treatment of all organized sports that use county fields, public or private.

To insure all county residents have access to affordable recreation

To accomplish this, no increases in any county park fees! Our regular county property taxes pay for the park system. Fees pay for special services not covered by property taxes. There are no services being offered to justify any increases or new fees. Ergo, there should be no new or increased fees.

On October 14th or 15th we will check to see if he proposed park budget is included in the overall county budget hearings and let you know. If it is not included it would mean it is dead and we will make a point of thanking county government on October 18th for their response to our concerns. If it is included, we will testify against it and encourage every park user to join us on the 18th.

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