White County commissioners, BOE hammer out recreation agreement

CLEVELAND - The White County Board of Commissioners and White County Board of Education Monday agreed to terms in an agreement on the County Parks YMCA use of education facilities such as gyms and ballfields.

The agreement calls for the county to compensate the education department for the use of the facilities.

The two entities have had a working agreement for several years, and recently the compensation was a swap with the county for a school resource officer provided through the sheriff's office.

This year, the resource office was taken out of the agreement and a dollar figure was placed back in. But when commissioners received the agreement last week, the compensation cost had increased from $25,000 to $30,000 so the commissioners got together with the board of education to find out why.

BOE member Charlie Thomas explained at the meeting it was inflation related.

"Part of our thought in going up from 25 to 30 was because of the utilities, as y'all know, has gone up three or four times," Thomas said. "The cost of keeping the fields maintained and all that has skyrocketed because fuel went up."

After some discussion, the commissioners and board of education agreed to stick with the $25,000 fee, with YMCA personnel required to be at the facilities used to assume responsibility for the activities.

The commissioners approved the agreement at the end of the meeting, with the board of education deferring approval until its next regular meeting later this month.