Buckeye
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The Game's Afoot
Posts: 336
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Post by Buckeye on May 2, 2013 5:41:21 GMT -7
Why do people, who live in the City always pay more? Don't the people in the County use the facilities? Now I'm not saying all the stuff on the list is necessary. I was at the meeting where all the new projects were presented. But, even in the past with projects, I keep wondering why the City has to pay more. As I understand it PARA was created to jointly manage the parks in the City and the Country. I don't know when or why this was done. But, I just don't get why our tax money, those in the City, goes to pay for more of the park expenses. Plenty of people in the County use them. link
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Post by rglewis on May 2, 2013 6:49:06 GMT -7
Most of Para's programs and facilities are in or near Tuscaloosa. I figure a good part of Tuscaloosa City's revenue comes from sales taxes and I would expect a decent number of people paying those sales taxes are from outside the city of Tuscaloosa.
As it currently sits Tuscaloosa City has 3, Tuscaloosa County 2, Northport 1, City BOE 1 and County BOE 1.
I'm NOT saying that Northport and Tusc County shouldn't pay more (I really think both should) but that the City has the greatest benefit of the facilities and the largest number of appointments on the Board.
McCollum is using the excuse of the "Agenda" deadline , The County Commission has a reputation of playing fast and loose with the rules.
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Buckeye
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The Game's Afoot
Posts: 336
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Post by Buckeye on May 2, 2013 7:21:18 GMT -7
RG are you talking about parks or centers? There are 6 Centers but many more Parks than that. There are 37 Parks according to the PARA website. Parks
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Post by rglewis on May 2, 2013 7:45:16 GMT -7
I'm not really making a distinction just talking about PARA in general.
Part of me would like to see PARA with a dedicated tax funded source so they wouldn't be as dependent on the Elected officials voting to give them money every year.
I looked (only a little) but didn't find a breakdown of PARA Funding. I think it would be interesting to see the sources of funding (If I recall correctly , on a per capita basis Tuscaloosa paid most, Northport Second , and County last ), a breakdown of the Users of PARA facilities (Parks AND activity Centers ) and PARA Programs.
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Buckeye
New Member
The Game's Afoot
Posts: 336
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Post by Buckeye on May 2, 2013 8:01:10 GMT -7
I agree on the dedicated funding source. I believe they do get a certain amount of money per year based on what they ask for but I just don't know enough about it.
I think it would be interesting to see who actually uses the facilities based on zip code City/County/Northport. We might get a good indication, then, about who uses what facilities the most. I would imagine there are a great many people on, for example, baseball and football teams that live in the County.
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Post by propagandist on May 4, 2013 21:51:57 GMT -7
Why do people, who live in the City always pay more? Don't the people in the County use the facilities? Now I'm not saying all the stuff on the list is necessary. I was at the meeting where all the new projects were presented. But, even in the past with projects, I keep wondering why the City has to pay more. As I understand it PARA was created to jointly manage the parks in the City and the Country. I don't know when or why this was done. But, I just don't get why our tax money, those in the City, goes to pay for more of the park expenses. Plenty of people in the County use them. link "Plenty of the people in the County use them."Really?
Let's do a complete, thorough, and exhaustive scientific survey. I will volunteer for one location: The pool at Bowers Park with the adjacent McAbee Center.
For one week (seven complete days) canvassers will interview as many persons as possible, which shouldn't be hard since they are concentrated in one location. Data will consist of 1) location of residence; 2) frequency of visits; and, most importantly, 3) was your visit here to access the pool or just because it was a convenient side trip diversion? No personally-identifiable information should be asked for or recorded; it's not needed for computational purposes.
At the end of the survey period, I would venture to guess that greater than 80% of the people who use PARA facilities are City residents, and for those who aren't and live out in the county, well, they came to town on their once a month shopping trip and decided to see what dipping into something other than the creek down the road was like.
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Buckeye
New Member
The Game's Afoot
Posts: 336
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Post by Buckeye on May 5, 2013 5:35:17 GMT -7
Why do people, who live in the City always pay more? Don't the people in the County use the facilities? Now I'm not saying all the stuff on the list is necessary. I was at the meeting where all the new projects were presented. But, even in the past with projects, I keep wondering why the City has to pay more. As I understand it PARA was created to jointly manage the parks in the City and the Country. I don't know when or why this was done. But, I just don't get why our tax money, those in the City, goes to pay for more of the park expenses. Plenty of people in the County use them. link "Plenty of the people in the County use them."Really?
Let's do a complete, thorough, and exhaustive scientific survey. I will volunteer for one location: The pool at Bowers Park with the adjacent McAbee Center.
For one week (seven complete days) canvassers will interview as many persons as possible, which shouldn't be hard since they are concentrated in one location. Data will consist of 1) location of residence; 2) frequency of visits; and, most importantly, 3) was your visit here to access the pool or just because it was a convenient side trip diversion? No personally-identifiable information should be asked for or recorded; it's not needed for computational purposes.
At the end of the survey period, I would venture to guess that greater than 80% of the people who use PARA facilities are City residents, and for those who aren't and live out in the county, well, they came to town on their once a month shopping trip and decided to see what dipping into something other than the creek down the road was like.
How about this. Instead of the pool, which by the way we don't go to because it costs too dang much, why don't we survey the ball players and those attending the games. I'll be willing to bet ya the majority of they don't live in the City. PARA isn't just about activity centers.
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