Wednesday, April 7, 2004
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Wednesday, April 7, 2004 |
| Council rehashes nonprofit support By J. FRANK LYNCH Once again, the issue of nonprofit giving and Peachtree City’s duty to support local causes frustrated members of the City Council last Thursday. Colleen Sugar, chairman of the All Children’s Playground Committee, had submitted a request to Leisure Services Director Randy Gaddo for $10,000 in funding to fully complete the handicapped-accessible playspace located in Luther Glass Memorial Park, behind the library. Gaddo appealed to the council, explaining that the $40,000 in playground equipment purchases budgeted for this fiscal year had been spent. Otherwise, at least part of Sugar’s request could have been met by that line-item. Besides, it had been a long five-year journey to this point, Gaddo noted, with the committee carrying the load much of the way. “When Colleen came to me five years ago, I had only been here about a year and she really opened my eyes to the equipment needs at all our playgrounds,” Gaddo told the council. Many of the city’s play parks have since been upgraded with more kid-friendly ground cover and equipment, Gaddo said. “Back then, we didn’t have any funding (for All Children’s Playground) but Colleen accepted the challenge and she’s made it happen,” said Gaddo, adding that when finished, the Peachtree City playground will rank among just a handful of such facilities nationwide. Under the advice of Financial Services Director Paul Salvatore, the Council approved transfering the $10,000 out of the city’s Public Improvement Projects fund. But that action still didn’t sit well with Councilman Murray Weed, who reminded the others of concerns he expressed back in February when the Field of Hope Committee came asking for $23,000 it said it needed to complete the handicapped-accessible baseball field at the South 74 Complex. Meeting that request, said Weed at the time, would just open up a floodgate of requests from other civic groups, all of whom might have worthy causes. Mayor Steve Brown concurred, but more to a financial reasoning: Last year, the council adopted a new policy limiting non-profit giving from its discretionary fund to just $5,000 per group per year, and then from a pool of just $25,000 total. That means each year, the council has at its disposal five $5,000 grants, period. In good faith, Gaddo tried to meet the needs of the Field of Hope organizers in February by offering to transfer $18,000 already set aside for sod and fencing at the South Complex, which on top of the council’s $5,000 gift would total about $23,000. But that offer got bogged down in emotion and the request was eventually amended. Approving the transfer would have been in violation of the council’s year-old policy. “We just approved spending $15,000 to build restrooms at the roller hockey rink,” Weed declared, referring to a Consent Agenda item OK’d earlier Thursday to apply county recreation funds to the city project. The city can’t possibly do justice to every request, Weed reminded. Funding one group over another would be akin to “saying one handicapped child’s life is worth more than another,” Weed declared emotionally. Yet, he agreed last week that the council had no choice but to approve the $10,000 transfer to the All Children’s Playground, which Councilman Steve Rapson pointed out was fully appropriate because the playground committee is not a nonprofit group, but rather a sub-panel of the city’s recreation commission. “How can we not do this?” Weed said. “What will that say about us?”
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