HOMER — The Banks County Commission has abolished the county's recreation board.
The move was the result of a 3-2 vote that followed the motion of newly-elected Commission Vice Chairman Danny Maxwell Tuesday night.
The issue was the next on the agenda after the election of Maxwell to the post, also by a 3-2 vote.
"I just think that what we need to do is to just dissolve the recreation board and in the near future just go ahead and restructure it and get it all set up," Maxwell said.
Commission Chairman Jimmy Hooper agreed.
"We only have one active member on the recreation board at this time," Hooper said. "As things change, I think the mission statement and the vision of the recreation board needs to change. If we're going to do it, I think now is as good a time as any."
Commissioner Charles Turk questioned Maxwell's suggestion.
"What are you going to redo?" Turk asked. "Are you going to make them have power to hold money or what? It's strictly an advisory board. They're supposed to take guidance from us."
Hooper said he believes the board should be made up of parents with children in the county's recreation programs.
"I've got some concerns about the direction the rec board has gone in the past few years," Hooper said.
Turk said there are some grandparents who are able to be more active than parents, but Hooper said his preference would be custodial parents.
Commissioner Sammy Reece said it doesn't take long for children to grow out of the program.
"That board needs to be reflective of the program and of the children that are involved at that time, and I don't know that that board has not lost its direction," Hooper said. "Now is as good a time as any for us to take it and fix it."
Turk again asked how Hooper thought the commission was going to change the board.
"Well, just by the make-up of the board will change it," Hooper said.
"That's what our job is, is to put people on there to change the make-up," Turk argued. "You can't change that structure, because an advisory board is simply an advisory board. We give them guidance. It's the people that's on the board that you've got the problem with and that's what needs to be corrected."
Hooper shook his head, saying, "We'll agree to disagree on this. My thinking is that the time to change it is now."
Hooper, Maxwell and Commissioner David Duckett voted to dissolve the recreation board. Turk and Reece voted against dissolution.
Following the meeting, Turk discussed his reasons for voting against dissolving the board.
"The reason I voted against it is I don't think you need to dissolve it," Turk said after the meeting. "It's simply a recommendation board, and if the other ones had problems with there not being people on there or they want certain people on there, then put who you want on there and give them direction on what direction you want the board to go in."
Maxwell said he wants to see the recreation board reincarnated in another form later.
"Dissolving a board and then creating another one … you're not accomplishing anything," Turk said. "They say there's one active member, but there's been more when we were building the new [sports] complex. There were three that were very active that were put on the committee to build it, and they were active members at the time. One of them was not put back on and another one resigned. The other one didn't want on it anymore once his term ended Dec. 31, so he came off. We don't have the list, but apparently we don't have but about one on there."
Turk said if there were four openings on the recreation board, the county could have taken applications for those positions and filled them with those who would be active.
"I don't see how you can take a recommendation board and rework it into a recommendation board," Turk said. "It just doesn't make sense."
Reece, who also voted against dissolving the board, said, "One problem is we need to do a better job of putting people on there."
While the recreation board has been used a lot to oversee major projects, such as construction of the gyms and most recently the ballfields complex, its members are supposed to tell the recreation director what they hear from residents of the county.
Turk said he would like to see the recreation board meet before each season or quarterly to tell the director what they're hearing in the community.
"That's what the board was set up to do," Turk said. "Basically if you don't have a project going on, then there's not a whole lot except for telling the director what you're hearing out there that they may not be hearing -- and that to me is the purpose of the board."
Following Tuesday night's 3-2 vote to dissolve the recreation board, no specifics were given as to a timetable for creating a replacement body.
"We don't have to have a recreation board," Hooper reminded commissioners.
