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Highlands Today

What Do You Want For County Recreation?

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: October 17, 2007

Personally, because he's an avid – and an admittedly slow – bicycle rider, Merritt O'Brien would like to see more biking trails.

In his public position, though, O'Brien said he's interested only in what you think the county needs in recreational facilities.

"We're hoping that through a survey, the citizens can tell us what they want in the way of recreation," said O'Brien, recently elected chairman of the Highlands County Recreation and Parks Advisory Committee.

For sure, he said, probably early in 2008, county residents will see a recreation survey.
"The results of that survey are going to set a priority list for us," said Vicki Pontius, the county's parks and recreation director.

O'Brien said the 13-member RPAC agrees with Pontius that a countywide survey on recreation needs is the No. 1 priority right now.

The list of new recreational facilities that county residents have been asking for is long. Pontius said it runs the gamut from dog parks and ATV trails to basketball and tennis courts, walking and equestrian trails to a senior- and/or community center.

Meanwhile, the dollars available for projects are limited.

From the county's one penny sales tax, $500,000 is allocated each year for recreation facilities. But, Pontius said, $320,000 per year is committed to debt service on Windy Point Park and the Highlands County Sports Complex, leaving $180,000 per year available for new projects.

"It would be rather presumptuous of us," Merritt said of RPAC, "to set an agenda when we don't know what the citizens want.

"We're not there to address our likes and dislikes," he added. "We're there to address recreation in Highlands County, and to do that we need people's input."

RPAC's last survey was about 10 years ago and determined the biggest need was ballfields for adults, as well as soccer fields for all ages.

Pontius said that survey was the catalyst for the $3.2 million Sports Complex, which opened in late August on Sheriff's Tower Road near Sebring High School. The 52-acre complex features five tournament-quality softball fields, plus soccer fields and a football field for Sebring Youth Football.
"Now that we've finished the Sports Complex, we'd like to get some direction on what the county funds should be spent on for future recreational needs," Pontius said.

O'Brien said a survey is crucial to answering the question, "Where should we be headed now?
"It may be beaches, it may be more ballfields, it may be community centers," he added. Before goals can be set, he said, "we need to get input from the citizens . ... and the only way to do that is to ask them."

RPAC members will work toward finalizing plans for a survey at their monthly meeting today at 2:30 p.m. at the Highlands County Annex.

"There's been a lot of ideas bounced around," Pontius said. The survey will be run in newspapers but also must be distributed in other ways, she said. County residents also could be surveyed online, by phone or mail, and surveys could be passed out at meeting places such as churches and community groups.

"We're trying to arrive at which methods we want to use," Pontius said. "What I think is that we may be doing it in three or four different ways."

Pontius said the survey must provide "a good and a fair sampling," getting information from all age and demographic groups.

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