A draft plan that would cut roughly 15 percent of the Cobb Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department budget lists several East Cobb parks and recreational facilities for possible permanent closure. They include the Fullers Park and Recreation Center, the Mountain View Aquatic Center and The Art Place.
Cobb PARKS director Jimmy Gisi has included those facilities, as well as the Mountain View Community Center, on a list of parks, recreational and community centers and other facilities under its purview as options for budget cuts that come to $3.3 million.
UPDATE: Cobb chairman proposes revised budget, keeping parks and libraries open
Cobb County government is facing a fiscal year 2019 budget deficit of at least $30 million, and commissioners will hold a retreat next week before budget town hall meetings take place around the county through early July.
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has proposed a 1.1-mill increase in the general fund property tax millage rate to cover the $30 million gap.
Earlier this year Cobb Library director Helen Poyer recommended cuts of nearly $3 million, or around 25 percent of that department’s budget to be reduced, including the closure of East Cobb Library.
Many of the East Cobb items on the parks and recreation list have undergone extensive renovations and maintenance in recent years with money from SPLOST and not property tax revenues.
There are facilities in each of the four Cobb Board of Commissioners districts that are on the draft list. By far, the deepest cuts would come in District 3 in Northeast Cobb, represented by JoAnn Birrell.
A total of $1.1 million in cost-savings has been identified there: The Art Place, Mountain View Aquatic Center and Mountain View Community Center.
The aquatic center budget is more than $600,000 a year, the most expensive of the items on the draft list. It’s heavily used by high school and club youth swimming teams, as well the general public. The facility was renovated with $1.4 million in 2011 SPLOST funding.
The Art Place, which offers art classes, has art gallery events and sales and an outdoor amphitheater. It’s also the home for numerous community concerts and theater presentations, including those of the Mountain View Arts Alliance and CenterStage North, has a budget of more than $500,000 a year.
Both the aquatic center and The Art Place are part of a consortium of county government services on Sandy Plains Road that includes the East Cobb Senior Center and the Mountain View Regional Library.
The Mountain View Community Center, with a budget of around $6,000 a year, also is in that complex, located next to the former Mountain View Elementary School. The county spent nearly $160,000 last year to make renovations on the small building, which was closed for several months.
The Fullers Park and Recreational Center on Robinson Road cost a combined $315,000 a year to operate, and serve as the home for the East Side Baseball Association and other youth and recreational entities. In recent years the rec center was renovated with nearly $1.2 million in SPLOST funds.
The Atlanta Braves also paid for the renovation of a baseball field at Fullers Park in 2015 as part of its “Chipper Jones Field” community outreach program.
Those are the only two facilities in Commisioner Bob Ott’s District 2 that are on the draft list.
Also included in the draft plan for possible elimination is Keep Cobb Beautiful, with an annual budget of more than $200,000, and which has a strong advocate in Birrell.
The list of the possible parks closures comes as new East Cobb parks projects are underway, or will be soon.
Construction on Mabry Park (formerly in District 3, now in District 2) began earlier this year, at a cost of nearly $3 million in SPLOST funding. Commissioners recently spent $1.7 million to purchase 18 acres on Ebenezer Road for a park in District 3.
That amount is included in the current fiscal year 2018 budget commissioners voted to fully fund the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum.
Those are passive parks, with minimal cost and staffing compared to what’s been included on the draft plan. Other possible closures include the Lost Mountain Park and Tennis Center and the Ward Recreational Center in West Cobb, and the South Cobb Aquatic Center and South Cobb Recreation Center.
Mabry Park’s annual operating budget is expected to be $104,000, paid via property tax revenues. Funding details for the development of the Ebenezer Road park have not been determined. The county is holding a public preview for that park on June 23.
The county is also spending $284,000 in property tax revenues in both the library and parks budgets for the current fiscal year to operate the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which opened in December 2017. It replaced the East Marietta Library and cost $10 million in SPLOST funding to construct.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
