Lake City, FL: Sewer Plant 1 – Rec Center 0
City spends $ millions on sewers, then votes 4-1 to shut
down rec center.
Posted October 16, 2012 02:30 am
LAKE CITY, FL – Last
night, shortly after approving millions for a sewer
plant, scaled down from approximately $30 mil to $8 mil
due to the flame out of the Columbia County economy,
Lake City's City Council voted 4-1 to shut down the
Southside Recreation Center (rec center), in a not
unexpected vote of support for City Manager Wendell
Johnson, who wanted to turn the long standing rec center
into a utility building. The rec center has been in
operation since 1977. The only vote, other than
residents, who spoke in support of keeping the City
landmark open, was out going City Councilmember Jake
Hill. (Photo: CM Johnson watches the conversation)
Glenda
Andrews came to the microphone. She told the Council
that when she worked at the waste water plant, which is
across the street from the rec center, she would watch
the children from the Summers Elementary School walk to
the center every day. She said, "They had a lot of good
activities back then. They haven't put the priority on
Southside recreation the way they used to." She thought
it might be a good idea to use it for the utility
department.
Ricky
Jurnigan told the Council that he thought federal grant
money paid for the building. No one on the council could
confirm that. He asked, "Why can't we review and revise
the programs that are there? If there is a problem,
let's review it and get those problems solved. That's
important to our children as well as our community...
Money is important, but our children are more important
than money."
Amanda
Phillips came to the microphone with a petition with
sixty signatures to keep the Southside Rec Center open.
"This is saying that we need this place for our
children. I'm a single mother. I think it would be
detrimental to our children not to be able to go to the
recreation department after school every day."
Jerri Markham told the Council that Ricky Jurnigan put on a singing competition at the rec center every year. "I really wouldn't want that to be taken away from us," she said.
Councilwoman
Moses said, "I saw her. She was really good."
A short time later the Council discussed City Manager Johnson's recommendation to shut down the rec center.
Councilwoman Moses said, "I have agonized over this. My children went there. I was a single mother and I know what that's like." She said that moneywise it doesn't make sense to keep it open. "I hate it, but I just think that probably it is the best thing to go ahead and make it a utility center."
Councilman
George Ward said, "The City should not be in the daycare
business. There are businesses out there striving to be
in the day care business and they shouldn't be in
competition with government that provides it for free."
He added, "It's a good match for the City right now and
financially responsible on our part." Mr. Ward was in
favor of the conversion of the rec center for utility
department use.
Councilman
Jake Hill said, "Day care is when a child is there all
day. This is for two or three hours and you want to shut
it down. Hmm. There's something wrong with that. Now
after thirty years there is a problem with the
liability. Has anyone ever heard of something that has
happened to a child at Southside in the past thirty
years?" When no one spoke up, Councilman Hill said, "So
I'm against shutting down Southside for the children."
Councilman Jefferson said, "I'm against closing recreation for the childrens... To my knowledge nothing has happened at Southside, but I don't want to sit here and wait for something to happen at Southside."
Mayor Witt said the County is providing certain parts of recreation that they didn't in the past. "We've got to change and do the right thing... I agree that we have to change what we're doing."
Councilman Ward moved that the City declare the Southside Recreation Center surplus to the City's recreational needs and that it be used by the Utility Department, effective January, 2013.
The motion passed 4-1, with Councilman Hill, in his final vote as a councilman, against.
The man who started the ball rolling for the demise of the Southside Recreation Center, City Manager Wendell Johnson, was uncharacteristically silent and didn't say a word.
