Hollister
– Amid the numerous cuts in the city’s plans for addressing the
ongoing budget deficit, one department was actually saved from the
chopping block.
Hollister – Amid the numerous cuts in the city’s plans for addressing the ongoing budget deficit, one department was actually saved from the chopping block.
But saving the city recreation department’s many programs will involve steep user fee hikes.
“As a community member, I’m relieved that it’s still going to be around,” said Lou Bettencourt, director of the Hollister YMCA.
Although the YMCA and the city recreation department offer many similar programs, Bettencourt sees the two organizations as complements, rather than competitors.
“Through our different approaches, we try to reach everyone,” he said.
Recreation Department Director Clay Lee said most of the department’s youth programs – including soccer, T-ball, basketball, softball, flag football and wrestling – have between 200 and 300 participants. Along with the YMCA, Clay said, the recreation department offers an approach to team sports unlike private organizations such as Little League baseball and Pop Warner football.
“With us, participation is the goal,” Lee said. “It’s less about winning and losing.”
He added that the department also provides the majority of organized local sports activity for adults.
Tom Castillo, who has played in the department’s adult softball league for the past 22 years, said he was also glad to hear the recreation department programs will be continued. But he said he’s worried about the proposal to increase program fees across the board by 33 percent – an increase city staffers said is necessary for the department’s survival.
The current rate for adult softball teams, according to the department’s Web site, is $570 per season, so a 33 percent rate hike would bring the fee to more than $750. Broken down between an average of 13 or 14 players on each team, that’s more than $50 per player.
Castillo said his team has always been sponsored by the local McDonald’s, but he’s skeptical that many others will be able to afford the hikes.
“I don’t really see it happening,” he said. “I don’t see teams paying that much.”
But Lee told the Free Lance the hikes – which also include a 50 percent increase to rental rates for the community center and the Veterans Memorial Building – were proposed after interviewing program participants about what they could afford.
“If we don’t do this, our programs go away,” he said.
Many hoped Hollister’s budget woes would be solved by Measure R, a proposed 1 percent sales tax increase. But voters rejected the ballot initiative on Nov. 7.
An earlier deficit reduction plan called for the recreation department’s elimination. The revised plan, however, offers the increased fees as a way to keep the department going.
City Manager Clint Quilter said maintaining the department will pay off. If the city had tried to restart its recreation program in a few years, he said, it would have to make new agreements in order to use the facilities it needs.
Councilman Doug Emerson said he hopes the recreation department will continue its tradition of accepting everyone who wants to participate – especially children – even if they can’t afford the fee.
“In the long run, if the kids are not participating in these programs, we may pay for it in other ways,” he said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or
ah*@fr***********.com
.
