COUNTY COMMISSION PLAYING HARDBALL

Despite resolution of budget dispute, halt work order at community centers still in effect

Jeanette Browning Faubion
Citizen Reporter/Editorial

The 2012 County budget may have been approved, but the ramifications of the budget disagreements are far from over.

On Jan. 5, the County Commission issued an order to stop all work on the planned $21 million in expansions at both Platte County Community Centers. The move was made after a Jan. 3 budget public hearing, where Prosecutor Eric Zahnd suggested the Commissioners ask voters to rescind the one-half cent parks sales tax and replace it with a one-eighth cent sales tax for parks and one-quarter cent for law enforcement.

That order still stands, according to the Commissioners. First District Commissioner Kathy Dusenbery said that though she and 2nd District Commissioner Jim Plunkett last week publicly announced they had no interest in seeking a rescission of the one-half cent parks sales tax renewal approved by voters in 2009, they were awaiting a proposal on how that could work from the Platte County Prosecutor.

Zahnd said he was somewhat surprised by this development. During discussions leading up to the 2009 renewal, Zahnd said he understood the Commissioners considered splitting the tax into a quarter-cent each for parks and law enforcement, but that proposal did not make it to the ballot.

“The County Commission alone has the authority to allow the voters to reconsider the one-half cent sales tax for parks or to decide to continue or stop work on expansions to the community centers,” Zahnd said. “Two of the three Commissioners said unequivocally last week that they would not now consider a ballot initiative to split the current parks tax between law enforcement and parks, meaning my proposed solution to the fundamental structural flaws in Platte County’s budget is a non-starter with them.”

Director of Parks and Recreation Brian Nowotny said the $21 million community center project was funded entirely through the parks sales tax and was one of the items at the top of the Parks Master Plan priority list. The list, he said, was established in 2009 after public surveys, forums and feedback.

“When people voted, they knew that what they were voting on, in part, were expansions to the community centers,” Nowotny said. The expansions, which were approved by the Commissioners last year, are still in the planning phases. Project hold orders have been issued to the architects, engineers and construction managers hired to design and oversee the project.

At stake, Nowotny said, were expansions of both community centers, including the significant expansion of the Platte County Community Center North and the construction of an eight-lane lap pool in partnership with the Platte County R-3 School District. Currently, as R-3 has no pool, students in the competitive swimming programs must travel to Leavenworth, Kan. for home swim meets.

The Commissioners also confirmed the impending closure of the Platte County Annex in Platte Woods. At a cost of nearly $200,000 per year to operate the annex, Dusenbery said the facility had outlived its usefulness. She said though she herself had at first opposed the closure of the Annex, through discussions with Collector Sheila Palmer she realized the increase in digital payments and document availability was making the Annex obsolete.