Parks and Rec program fees to increase

Apr. 18—The Lee County Parks and Recreation is updating its fee schedule which will raise costs for athletic and gymnastics programs.

Joseph Keel, Parks and Recreation director, presented the schedule at Monday night's meeting of the Lee County Board of Commissioners.

"The cost of hats and cost of jerseys, cost of equipment — everything's going up," Keel said.

Fees for ages 6 and up in athletics will increase from $30 to $35 in most of the leagues, he said. Athletic programs for ages 8 and up will go from $45 to $50.

Gymnastic fees will increase by $25.

"Looking at our cost recovery model, we looked at the individual benefits versus the community benefits versus the team benefit," Keel said. "The gymnastics team and Tiny Tots program were a sole individual benefit for our park patrons, so that rate is going up to help our cost recovery model as well."

With the new fee schedule, Parks and Recreation will be able to accomplish two things, Keel said.

"One, we can make the fee schedule more consistent and two, helping that recovery model and bringing that revenue to offset some of our expenses."

Commissioner Andre Knecht said he heard that there was a need for coaches and proposed waiving the fee for the children who were on the coach's team. It would be an incentive, Knecht said.

The Parks and Rec advisory board has discussed the issue at length and last month, a policy for coaches was presented, Keel said. The registration fee for children on teams coached by a parent would be paid up front.

At the end of the season, if the coach has met the criteria as a model coach, the fee would be reimbursed.

However, one issue is defining a model coach "because there is a lot of gray area when it comes to that," Keel said.

"I can see if the coach doesn't finish out the year or something like that, but maybe just don't invite him back to be a coach," Knecht responded.

"It's an ongoing issue for all parts of our departments, especially when you look for volunteers," Keel said. "The bigger issue for us is because we've grown so fast, so quick."

With 77 T-ball, baseball and softball teams, finding coaches and volunteers or assistant coaches has taken a lot longer than we wanted," he said.

Before voting on the schedule, Knecht asked that the waiver for coaches' children be included.

"Just for clarification, is this a motion to amend the fee schedules to not charge coaches with children on their teams?" Commission Chair Kirk Smith asked.

Yes, Knecht said.

Commissioner Taylor Vorbeck recused herself from the vote because she coaches a girls soccer team in the Parks and Rec program.

The motion was approved.