GAINESVILLE – Gainesville’s Parks and Recreation Department experienced both sides of the COVID pandemic during the past twelve months: cancellation of most indoor events but an inordinate surge in the use of outdoor facilities.
Community theatre, basketball, use of the Civic Center and the Francis Meadows Aquatic Center, among others programs, all ground to a halt; open-air venues like the new skateboard park, the Midtown Greenway trail system, city parks and the Upper Lanier Water Trail saw strong attendance.
So what will the next twelve to eighteen months look like?
Gainesville Parks and Recreation Director Kate Mattision appeared before the Gainesville City Council Thursday morning to present her FY2022 budget and to look into her crystal ball to share her idea of what the coming year might look like.
Mattison said the slow return to ‘normal’ actually started last fall. “We successfully implemented COVID-reopening plans last year and that was really crazy and varied across (the board) and I’m pleased to say that with the most recent governor’s orders that we have gone back to almost completely full capacity everywhere.”
Mattison said the involuntary downtime caused by COVID-19 restrictions actually provided a great opportunity to renovate the Gainesville Civic Center without forcing normally scheduled events to relocate. She said work is completed at the facility, including a major upgrade in technology and now the push is “…to maybe draw back some of the people that we lost due to our lack of audio/visual…we certainly lost some people (due) to that over the last few years to some of the newer facilities, but now we are as close to state-of-the-art as you can be.”
Mattison continued her presentation, focusing on what is planned for FY2022, which begins July 1st of this year.
“We’re hoping to expand our ‘Fitness In The Parks’…we’re hoping to add a youth wrestling program to be another feeder program for Big Red (Gainesville Middle and High School) athletics…to add restrooms everywhere in our parks and along our trails,” Mattison said exuberantly.
She said an effort to convert the traditional field lighting system at Lanier Point Park sports complex to more-efficient LED lighting has encountered a unique challenge. “This is a huge endeavor to switch everything over to LED, but we have osprey nests…that we aren’t allowed to touch…so we cannot touch those lights, so we can’t repair them,” Mattison explained, but said alternate solutions were under consideration.
Some of the others items planned for FY2022 include overhead and ground level lighting along the Midtown Greenway, a disc golf course at Wessell Park, a restroom facility at Riverside Park, playground improvements at Longwood Park, land acquisition for future parks and continued development at "The Coop", the city's new Youth Sports Complex.
All these projects cost money, however, and Mattison says her budget for the 2022 fiscal year will be $7.52-million. Nearly two-thirds of that funding comes from the property tax millage rate set by law nearly a century ago (1924), with the balance of that budget being provided by facility user-fees and the city’s General Fund Balance.
To view Mattison’s presentation click here and then select the 'FY22 Budget Presentation' at the bottom of the page.
