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Mayor: Watts turned away city proposal, will instead fund county rec program

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, July 28, 2015, 11 p.m. — The joint recreation agreement between the City of Bardstown and Nelson Fiscal Court that expired June 30th will not be extended or renewed and no further negotiations are expected.

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Bardstown Mayor John Royalty, right, talks with City Attorney Tim Butler prior to the start of Tuesday’s Bardstown City Council meeting.

Bardstown Mayor John Royalty made the announcement at Tuesday night’s Bardstown City Council meeting, stating that Nelson County Judge Executive Dean Watts had turned down Royalty’s latest proposal, which asked the county to increase its share of funding for the joint recreation program.

“He rejected my proposal today and said they would do their own county recreation department,” he said.

The Bardstown City Council voted Sept. 23, 2014, to put the county on notice it was canceling the city-county recreation agreement. That agreement technically ended June 30.

Negotiations had been ongoing for several weeks, Royalty said, and the city’s goal was to make recreation funding more equitable between the city and county. The city and county have funded the joint recreation program for more than 30 years.

The city contributes more than $590,000 annually to fund the joint recreation program, Royalty said. The county contributes $100,000 and the facilities at Dean Watts Park, though the parks fields are maintained by the city recreation department, he said.

Royalty said the proposal that Watts reject was a request for county government to increase their annual contribution to recreation from $100,000 to $250,000.

The city’s recreation expenses have climbed over the years, but Nelson Fiscal Court has not increased their financial contribution since the 1990s, he said. “I’m just trying to make it fair and even for what the city taxpayers are paying.”

“All the staffing was by the city,” Royalty said. “We did everything to make the grounds enjoyable for the kids, they (county government) just provided the ground.”

Royalty said there’s more to managing recreation that drawing chalk lines on playing fields. “It’s going to be an eye-opening education” for the county government when they understand all the work the city did in managing the joint recreation department, he said.

Presumably, a new county-operated and funded recreation department will take over the management of the park and its programs like soccer, baseball and football, as well as the maintenance duties the city has performed.

City workers will remove city-owned bleachers from the park next week and move them to city property. Other city equipment that was at the park was moved weeks ago, Royalty said.

DISPATCH AGREEMENT NEXT. Royalty said with the recreation question settled, the city-county agreement on funding the E-911 Dispatch center will be the next agreement that he’ll address.

When the city canceled the recreation agreement last September, it also put the county on notice of its intent to cancel the dispatch agreement. Unless a new agreement is negotiated or the current agreement extended, the mechanism that funds the joint dispatch center will expire in September.

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