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County To Consider $37,750 For Recreation Survey

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Dick Spangle of Sebring enjoys a bike ride on the Hammock Road trail on Friday. Highlands County's Recreation and Parks Advisory Committee is recommending a $37,750 expendituure for a consulting firm to survey county residents on recreation needs.

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: February 22, 2008

SEBRING — Highlands County commissioners will be asked to spend $37,750 on a consulting firm for a professional, telephone-based survey to gauge what county residents want in recreation facilities.

In a 6-3 vote Thursday, the Highlands County Recreation and Parks Advisory Committee (RPAC) decided to recommend hiring Wilson Miller to conduct a scientific-sampling survey of residents' hopes for recreation.

The firm would work with a subcontracted consulting firm, Datatron, Inc., to conduct the telephone survey of county residents.

Vicki Pontius, county director of parks and recreation, said the recommendation to hire this consulting firm had to come from RPAC.

"The (county) commissioners now are very reliant on committees, they put a lot stock in what a committee says," Pontius told RPAC members.

If RPAC recommends spending $37,750 on the consulting firm, Pontius said, "it has much more impact coming from you (committee members) than from me. You have a lot of pull with the commissioners."

Objections to this expenditure by RPAC members centered on the county having little or no money to fund any projects which the survey would determine are the highest priority for residents.

Pontius said the county has many unmet and unfunded recreation needs, and there will be little funding available in the next several years for major projects like the $3 million-plus, five-diamond Sports Complex which opened in September for local and out-of-town softball players.

The motion to recommend the $37,750 expenditure for a professional recreational needs survey was approved 6-3 based mainly on two issues.

First, proponents of the consulting firm said the Wilson Miller survey would accurately gauge interest in various recreation projects. Pontius said any kind of in-house survey, using volunteers, would not be scientific and would give a skewed view.

"If you take questionnaires to people at a bowling alley, they're going to say we need more bowling," she said. Also, proponents of a certain type of recreation could "stuff the ballot box" with any kind of published clip-and-mail-in survey.

A professional telephone survey, based on a random selection of people in each of the county's area code zones, will provide an accurate picture of what all segments of the population want in recreation, Pontius said.

Requests from county residents for recreation facilities range from ATV trail parks to staffed swimming beaches, community and senior citizen centers to hiking trails and fishing piers.

The second main argument for the professional survey is that in addition to a list of projects people hope to see, county officials could also see a percentage breakdown of the population's interest in each project. From those statistics county officials could prioritize future recreation projects.

Pontius said even if money for the most popular projects isn't available immediately, an accurate survey could be used to set a 5-, 10- or 15-year, long-range recreation priorities plan.

Opposition on RPAC to hiring the consulting firm was based on the county's short supply of recreation money.

A portion of the county's 1-cent sales tax is allocated to recreation, and that will produce $674,160 for recreation projects this year. However, previous projects will take up $547,439, leaving just $126,661 available for new projects this fiscal year.

A total of $445,988 will go toward this year's payment for the softball field complex. Of that, $320,988 goes for this year's debt service on the Sports Complex, and $125,000 for construction of a building with concession stands and restrooms for the Pop Warner football program and soccer leagues.

With only $126,661 available for new projects, spending $37,750 on a consulting firm for the recreation "community needs assessment survey" will drop available project funding to $108,911.

In the end, the consulting firm proposal won approval from RPAC members by a two-to-one margin.
The next step is taking this recommendation to the county commissioners, who are the only ones who can decide on spending recreation capital funds. Commissioners have rarely, if ever, turned down a funding recommendation from RPAC.

RPAC members appointed a three-person subcommittee of Ned Hancock, Clay Gooch and John Shoop to prepare a presentation to the commissioners on the consulting firm contract.

Besides the $445,988 committed to the Sports Complex this year, other funding for this fiscal year already committed includes:
$75,700 for new restrooms at the Durrah Martin Complex in Avon Park;
$45,000 for a playground at Lake Placid Elementary School;
$23,450 to replace batting cages at Max Long Recreational Complex in Sebring; and
$17,500 for this year's debt service on Windy Point Park on Lake Istokpoga.

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