EL DORADO — The city needs a manager for the recreation complex’s ballfields, but first there needs to be money to pay for that position.
That was the opinion of Mayor Frank Hash at Friday’s meeting of the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Complex Board.
Board member Stacey Scroggins asked if Hash thought the city needed a director for the complex after the discussion turned to finances.
“I think that is where we want to go,” Hash said, “but right now, there isn’t the money in the budget for a salary for a director.”
The revenue from the recreation complex concessions has been going out to contractors who lease the concession stand from the city/county for $1,600 a year.
Likewise, there is limited revenue coming back to the city from baseball and softball tournaments or from advertising.
Will Crowder, who was attending his first board meeting Friday as a new member and who also serves on the Quorum Court, said the board should look into contracting the signage out to a sign maker who can sell and make the signs then pay a percentage of his revenue to the city/county.
Currently there are a dozen or so signs at the complex that bring in $250 a year, but several of the signs are old and need updated.
A park director could oversee the marketing of advertising as well as scheduling tournaments to play at the recreation complex, which could eventually result in a revenue stream coming back to the city and county, Hash said, but before anything can happen, the city and the quorum court need to decide what is happening with the county’s funding.
“I spoke to County Judge Mike Loftin this morning and he said that the quorum court will continue to support the recreation complex, but we don’t know what he means by ‘support,’” Hash said.
The quorum court recently suggested they might stop contributing the $64,000 the county has given to the recreation complex since the early 1980s, Hash said.
Combined with the $64,000 in funding provided by the city, the recreation complex has a budget of just over $120,000, which is used to pay the salaries of two employees as well as fund other operational aspects of the recreation park.
No decision has been made by the quorum court members as to whether or not they will continue to help finance the complex.
City Council member Dianne Hammond asked if a director could be hired at a lower base salary and then receive a percentage of the complex revenue once funding started coming in.
“We could check and see what other towns do,” Hammond said.
Crowder said that, as he saw it, there were four basic revenue streams at the recreation complex — signage, gate fees, tournaments and concessions.
“We’ve been saying we need a manager all along,” Scroggins said.
“We have to get this unknown straightened out with the quorum court,” Hash said. “Too many people in the city and the county rely on these parks. Taking it off the table is not an option.”
“The recreation complex is a ‘quality of life’ issue, and it is meaningful for residents from both the city and the county,” Scroggins said.
The quorum court met Thursday but did not discuss the recreation complex funding, the mayor said.
“The quorum court meets again at 10 a.m. on Sept. 15, and we need to see how many people we can get to be there,” Hash said.
Randal Curtman is the managing editor of the El Dorado News-Times. He may be reached at 870-862-6611 or by email at [email protected].