Carson City parks/rec panel backs part-time clerical position

The Parks and Recreation Commission reviewed the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space budget request for the coming fiscal year and decided to advocate for a part-time clerical position at the Community Center.

All city departments, including Parks and Rec, met March 21 with the city’s internal finance committee to make pitches for supplemental requests to their budgets. The departments, which requested a total of $12 million, are competing for $3.5 million in available supplemental funds.

Parks and Rec’s first priority was $53,165 for a new full-time parks maintenance workers, which the committee agreed to recommend to the Board of Supervisors, said Jennifer Budge, director, Parks and Rec.

But Parks and Rec made several other requests, including $15,000 for a part-time clerical position at the Community Center to provide support for staff and act as an information resource for the public, which the committee declined to recommend.

So the commission decided to throw its support behind the clerical position when the budgets and supplemental requests go before supervisors for approval.

City departments also met in March to decide on what capital improvement projects to put forward for fiscal year 2018-2019, which begins July 1.

For Parks and Rec, $748,530 is being recommended for seven items, including $300,000 to replace aged playground equipment, $175,000 for a trash compactor truck, and $180,000 for a backhoe for use at the cemetery.

All that, if approved, is funded through the city’s general fund. But Parks and Rec also has the Quality of Life fund, which will provide $350,000 to replaster the pool and $218,148 to help pay for a $600,000 project to replace seats and refurbish Bob Boldrick Theater inside the Community Center.

The commission also briefly discussed the department’s evolving policy for special events equipment.

The department has temporarily stopped providing stages for special events out of safety concerns and until the stages can be professionally inspected, said Budge.

At the same time, the department is reassessing what equipment and services to provide and at what cost in order to develop a new policy.

“There are lot more efficient ways to do some of the things we’ve been doing,” Budge told the commission.