The fate of parks and recreation facilities played a big role Thursday as the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly worked through final amendments to the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts in July.
The Mary Siah Recreation Center managed to escape proposed cuts that would have seen it close this summer. But in a separate amendment, the assembly voted to shutter the Joy Community Center.
Both decisions mark reversals from the finance committee work session last month, when assembly members last discussed the proposed cuts.
At that time, the committee forwarded a budget amendment to close Mary Siah for a net savings of $68,000 as they looked to trim a budget that’s balanced by drawing from borough savings.
It wasn’t the first time in recent years a borough assembly has considered – but ultimately shot down – closing the rec center. And like before, the community rallied behind Mary Siah, contacting the assembly and giving hours of testimony at a meeting last week.
Assemblymember Kristan Kelly invoked that public participation on Thursday.
“I think what we heard time and time again in the hundreds of emails we got is that people really rely on Mary Siah and our Parks and Rec department in general for their health and socialization, and how important that is in Fairbanks, Alaska,” she said.
Added into the equation were new, increased rates to parks and rec user fees meant to raise borough revenue, though by an undetermined amount.
The new fees came in a budget amendment introduced by Assemblymember Tammie Wilson that narrowly passed Thursday, 5-4, before the vote on Mary Siah. The move raised adult, household and senior drop-in rates by $1 apiece (with a proportionate increase for the 10-day passes), and it also raised so-called superpass rates for adults and seniors by $25 each.
Those opposed to the changes largely said the increases hadn't undergone careful enough consideration or economic analysis, with Assemblymember Scott Crass saying the budget amendment arrived in the "11th hour."
After the new rates passed, all six assembly members who had voted to close the rec center at the work session then joined the other three in the unanimous vote to reinstate funds to keep Mary Siah functioning for another fiscal year.
But the assembly was more divided about shuttering the Joy Community Center, passing that budget amendment 5-4.
The administration also opposed its closure. Mayor Grier Hopkins said he agrees the borough needs to offload the building – which was formerly an elementary school – but only after coming up with a plan.
He said the facility is currently well-used and already has bookings for events in the upcoming fiscal year, like the Summer Arts Festival, which will now have to find a new location.
“We will be moving forward on trying to find a way of selling, leasing, whatever it is – putting out an RFP – whatever we can do to figure out how to divest ourselves of the Joy Community Center,” he said. “That being said, the community has moved into the Joy Community Center and uses it avidly.”
The budget amendment to close Joy estimated that doing so would save the borough about $54,000 in the next fiscal year.
Assemblymember Brett Rotermund said he views those savings as something that can compound year after year and that moving borough operations out of the building is a first step toward divestment.
“This is a huge amount of square footage to maintain. It’s not $54,000. It’s potentially millions and millions of dollars, depending on how long we hold onto this building, so I know these decisions are hard, but we’ve got to start somewhere,” he said.
Assemblymembers Wilson, Rotermund, Nick LaJiness, Liz Reeves-Ramos and Barbara Haney voted to close the community center; Assemblymembers Kelly, David Guttenberg, Scott Crass and Mindy O’Neall were opposed.
A later motion by LaJiness to reconsider Joy’s closure failed. Though receiving five votes – the majority – motions for immediate reconsideration require the favor of six assembly members.