Community Center Director Diane Booth returned to the county board Tuesday, December 15, 2009 to ask for clarification on pursuing plans for the new community center/ pool complex to be funded by the upcoming 1% sales and use tax. With her were Community Center board members Jean Mathis and Gail Anderson.
Booth said she doesn’t know whether to move forward yet. Of the Community Center board she said, “These people have a lot of energy. Theywant to get going.” Is this the group you want to be doing this? she asked.
“In my mind, yes,” answered Commissioner Jim Johnson, but he added, “We need a point person, an administrator, a facilitator.” A lot of people have expressed interest in the planning process. “The energy is there,” he said. Thecounty board has been discussing the possibility of hiring a county administrator, “but these people are willing to do it for nothing,” he said. He supported the committee putting ideas together, however.
Commissioner Jan Hall agreed. “I’m not for an administrator,” she said. An administrator would head implementation of the 1% but also oversee all county departments. She supported hiring a coordinator to help launch the seven projects to be funded by the 1% tax. “I think we are going to need a coordinator,” she said.
“I think we are beyond the point of having the Community Center being charge of this project,” said Commissioner Bob Fenwick. Either the county board needs to take the lead or they need to get someone to help with it, he said. If the county board is in charge of the project, he said, the process won’t get slowed down by committee.
Community Center volunteers could be helpful in gathering information, Commissioner Fritz Sobanja suggested.
Authorizing a committee to make plans and bring them to the board only to have those plans rejected by the board would be bad, Fenwick said.
Gail Anderson agreed that the county board should take charge and said the committee is there to help.
“We need you guys to help us on this process,” Commissioner Johnson said.
“When are we going to start?” Commissioner Hall asked.
The board needs someone to manage all seven projects, Commissioner Fenwick said. “It just doesn’t happen with people getting together and talking about it in committee,” he said. Regarding the county board, he said, “Nobody feels more obligated to get this done quickly, and nobody feels more obligated to get this done right.”
“I agree we need to have somebody in charge of the project,” said Anderson. “You can’t leave a group of committee members in charge of building a $9,000,000 building.”
Commissioner Fenwick said the Community Center board could review the information that has been gathered so far and make a list of needs, wants, and things that probably won’t or can’t be done. Thecounty board could give the community center board specific tasks, he said, but the board would need to keep in mind which decisions are the responsibility of the county commissioners.
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