Senior centers dominate dialogue

Staff writer

[email protected]

The recent parks survey gave Clovis residents a chance to voice their thoughts on the future of parks and recreation in the city. And 93 percent of those responding felt the city should set aside additional funding for parks and recreation activities.

Mayor David Lansford opened a town hall meeting, a follow up to the parks survey, with a frank discussion of funding options Thursday at the Clovis Civic Center.

link Staff photo: Aubry Buzek

Chris Green, the principal landscape architect for Consensus Planning, discusses parks and

recreation priorities and funding with a group at the town hall meeting Thursday at the Clovis Civic Center.

“Quite frankly, we don’t have any more taxing authority,” Lansford said. “Our gross receipts taxing authority is maxed out. So then we have to look at existing gross receipts taxes that are currently being used for other purposes, and reallocate those dollars to this plan. And we may have to look at property taxing authority, or private contributions.”

“We need a plan,” Lansford said. “And if we have a plan that is widely supported by all age groups and all user groups, that’s practical and affordable and achievable and that’s prioritized correctly, then we will get this done.”

Before breaking the crowd into groups, Jackie Fishman, the principal at Consensus Planning, went over the highlights of the recent parks survey.

Fishman said 721 households participated in the survey, of which more than two thirds said they participated in parks and recreation facilities in the past 12 months, “which signals a pretty active community.”

After presenting a few other highlights from the survey, Fishman broke the crowd into groups of five and more to discuss parks priorities and funding.

The crowd, which was overwhelmingly senior aged, devoted much discussion to the construction of a centralized senior center that would provide meals, adult day care, housekeeping and chore programs.

“Well I think there was obviously a pretty strong senior center and services contingent here, that’s consistent with the survey results,” Fishman said. “We heard that services aren’t quite where we expect them to be and they support a new senior center. That came through very loud and clear.”

The groups also discussed priorities at Hillcrest Park, which brought up the lack of swimming and football facilities, as well as security concerns.

Fishman said one of the takeaways from the discussion groups is the question of whether the city should run parks programs versus volunteer organizations and leagues.

“I didn’t hear very much support for the city running the programs,” Fishman said. “I think people feel like keeping it with the private volunteer groups works better.”

The results of the survey and the input from the town hall will be used by Consensus Planning to make recommendations for the 10-year Master Parks Plan.

“We have to, over the next six months to a year, develop a plan that satisfies all user groups, and brings greater quality to our community, that we can afford and that will be appreciated and utilized by the people in this community,” Lansford said.