Thursday, March 10, 2005

Package deal makes sense on Barnum, Rec Center, further parks improvements

We're thinking the best way for the City Commission to dispose of all the issues surrounding Barnum -- what to do with the building, whether or not we get a recreation center -- and to present a grand vision for the use of the rest of the parks bond money, might be to present a package deal to voters.

In our opinion, it might ought to include:

1. A sale of a portion of the Barnum property. Let's face it: We bought the thing to insure continued open space. Nobody really wanted the building, but we didn't have a choice. If we wanted the playfield, we had to buy the building. Now, there's an opportunity to gain back a significant percentage of the purchase price, and put a nice chunk of property back on the tax rolls. We can probably net $6 million-$10 million on the property, and add $500,000-$1 million per year in taxes. Both of those are significant sums.

2. A commitment, if legally feasible, to plow back the proceeds into the parks system. We could do a heck of a lot with that money. If $1 million will get you a pretty elaborate Booth Park, imagine what you could get from another $10 million. And there are plenty of parks that could use it. For starters, Kenning (behind the Ice Arena) needs a master plan, and from there we could move to any number of other parks.

3. A deal with the YMCA that would get us a de facto community center. The Y needs rebuilding, and the Y people and city people all know it. If the Y is squeezed for land (they say they could use some extra parking), we have a nice chunk of land adjacent in St. James park and the parking lot behind the Y (which actually belongs to the city).

4. Some concept plans for parks improvements that will be done with the remaining money and any dough we get back from Barnum.

Seems like a package deal like this would satisfy a lot of people. And with the ball rolling on design plans -- Booth is done and a great plan was just submitted on Shain -- it is likely that we could have a whole host of concept plans available by Election Day that would wow voters and make everybody happy.

Are we on the right track?