Memorial donation spurs more discussion by Charles City Parks & Rec Board over funding priorities

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Parks and Recreation Board has a fun new challenge – coming up with the best way to spend a recent $50,000 donation.

At the board’s meeting Wednesday evening, Chair Jeff Otto said he had been contacted by Steve White, saying he wanted to make the donation in memory of his mother, Donna White, who died in 2011.

Otto said White wants the money to be used toward a skate park and a playground, after White read in the Press about the Park & Rec Board’s discussions at a previous meeting concerning budgeting priorities for the new fiscal year.

“He does not want to sit on this very long,” Otto said. “I said we would be meeting tonight – I just talked to him an hour ago to make sure – and I said we’d probably discuss it tonight and firm up a (skate park) location in January and then plan to get started the first of spring.”

Charles City Parks and Recreation Department Director Tyler Mitchell said the board has $25,000 set aside already, tentatively for a skate park, and had planned on using $50,000 or so that it would get from the city hotel/motel tax in the new fiscal year.

At the previous meeting two weeks earlier, the board had discussed putting that funding toward a skate park that it could then point to as an accomplishment as it begins fundraising efforts for other priority items such as a splash pad and playground improvements and additions.

At the meeting Wednesday, Mitchell said, “For me as a park and rec guy, from talking with other towns – small towns like us – skate parks did not get used very much. My biggest thing is playgrounds get used a ton in this town.”

He said the $25,000 the board has set aside, plus the $50,000 donation, plus another $50,000 from the hotel/motel tax would total $125,000 and provide enough funds to build a nice new playground or a significant update on an existing playground.

“That’s a big project this Park Board hits right away,” Mitchell said. Then, if other donations come in, the board can decide if it wants to do a skate park.

“For me, I would like to see a new playground getting out there, because our playgrounds, some of them, are in dire need,” Mitchell said, adding that some of the equipment is old enough that there are no longer parts available for updates or repairs.

“That’s just my opinion. I would love to see it go to a really, really nice playground,” said Mitchell, who organizes the Parks & Rec Board’s meetings but is not a voting member of the board.

Otto said, “I think he’s going to want to see this going toward a skate park and playground.”

Mitchell said, “He’s not going to get both.”

Even a modest skate park will cost about $60,000 including the cost of new concrete. That would only leave enough for “a tiny, tiny playground,” Mitchell said.

Board member Dana Sullivan brought up the possibility of applying for a Wellmark Foundation grant, which awards up to $100,000 for recreational projects such as parks, playgrounds, outdoor fitness stations, waterway access, swimming pools, splash pads, walking paths and more.

The grant could be a good fit for the type of projects the board is considering, Sullivan said, but in her experience you need to be very specific in the application for the grant, knowing where the project will be built, what it will cost, what it will include and also demonstrating that the applicant already has significant funds dedicated to the project.

Applications are due in February and the awards are announced in May, she said.

Sullivan is the associate principal of the middle school, school district director of activities and junior varsity softball coach. She gained considerable experience in grant-writing and fundraising in the effort to build the new high school ball diamonds on the high school/middle school campus.

Adding another $100,000 to the board’s $125,000 would provide enough funds to do both projects, Mitchell said.

The board members also discussed possible fundraising efforts for other projects, including a splash pad, which has evolved as one of the board’s priorities.

Also at the meeting, the board heard about a potential new project at the middle school that could provide bicycles and other equipment, along with training, to develop a bicycling program as part of the middle school physical education classes.

Parks & Rec Board member Cory Mutch, a bicycling enthusiast who works as graphic designer for the state-crossing RAGBRAI annual bicycle ride organization, said he was approached by phys ed teachers at the school about starting a bicycling program.

“I reached out to a good friend of mine who owns Wayne’s Ski and Cycle in Mason City,” Mutch said.

“He has worked with Mason City school systems to do something very similar. They actually ended up doing I think it was 35 or 45 bikes through Trek,” Mutch said. “He comes in and trains the teachers on proper bike maintenance, rideability, safety.”

Mutch said they were working on putting together a program “in the background” right now, and also teaming up with the Iowa Bicycle Coalition.

“They’re super excited to get on board with it, too,” Mutch said about the coalition, and in addition to potentially helping raise funds to fund the school program the group will try to help get money for maintenance and expansion of Charles City’s Charley Western bicycling and pedestrian trail, including possible connections to other trails.

“With it being at the middle school it’s close to the bike trail, so they’ll utilize the bike trail,” he said, adding that if the program is a success it could go next to Washington Elementary because that is also close to the trail.

“For kids who wouldn’t be able to ride a bike there’s trikes and adaptive bikes,” Mutch said.