Northport Leaders Mull Substantial Increase In Funding For PARA

NORTHPORT, AL — Budget season is here with the coming of the new fiscal year and the concerns were plentiful from Northport city leaders on Thursday when considering a substantial boost in funding requested by its largest outside agency ... Tuscaloosa County Park & Recreation Authority (PARA).

Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter and breaking news alerts.

PARA Finance Director Michael Crady, along with PARA Executive Director Gary Minor and Director of Community Outreach Jay Logan were all in attendance on Thursday as 13 outside agencies made their funding requests to Northport officials and members of the City Council's Finance Committee.

As Patch previously reported, PARA generates approximately 43% of its funding, while relying on contributions from the cities of Northport and Tuscaloosa, along with Tuscaloosa County, to make up the difference. With the fiscal year coming to a close, the agency is also requesting 14% increases in funding from Tuscaloosa and the county.

ALSO READ: PARA Requests 14% Funding Increases From City Of Tuscaloosa, County

However, the debate in Northport is a nuanced one, given that PARA only manages two facilities within the city limits — the Northport Community Center, which is owned by the City of Northport, and Kentuck Park. Still, facilities such as the Faucett Brothers Activity Center, which is technically in the county, gets the majority of its participation from Northport residents.

For its 2023 budget request, PARA asked for a $500,000 base appropriation from Northport, which is more than double its funding from last year, along with requesting $1.6 million for capital investments.

While the base funding would go towards operations, material costs and covering any revenue shortfalls, the requested $1.6 million for capital improvements would be put toward the following:

• A Northport dog park.
• Improvements at Kentuck Park.
• Upgrades to the Northport Community Center.

"We need capital money," Minor explained. "We don't get capital money unless the governments give it and we do get a small portion of the beer tax, which amounts to about $100,000 a year ... we're extremely short on dog parks in our community. Dog parks are typically the most used park per square foot of any other parks."

Minor then mentioned the Will May Dog Park at Sokol Park, which is in the City of Tuscaloosa, but is used by many residents of nearby Northport. This prompted District 1 Councilwoman and Finance Committee Chair Christy Bobo to ask if there would be any fundraisers to help with building a new dog park within the Northport city limits.

She then mentioned the collaborative fundraising efforts that made the Will May Dog Park possible, in addition to the nearby Tuscaloosa All-Inclusive Playground Project, or TAPP. Indeed, apart from contributions by the cities of Northport and Tuscaloosa — and Tuscaloosa County — TAPP was made possible through fundraising efforts by the Nick's Kids Foundation and other private donors.

"So, how do we benefit in the same way that we've been helping others to have facility?" Bobo asked.

Minor responded by saying that PARA generates approximately $15,000 a year for the Will May Dog Park, in addition to a small one-day fundraising event and Bark in the Park. Additionally, he said the Will May Foundation is an active participant in fundraising initiatives.

Still, as was seen during PARA's recent funding request from the City of Tuscaloosa earlier this week, talk turned back to revenue.

Northport City Administrator Glenda Webb requested figures relating to the annual cost of operations at the Northport Community Center and Kentuck Park — both of which are managed by PARA. This is where the confusion began, as Webb and other city officials were provided with little in the way of hard numbers relating to revenue.

" I'm looking at what is actually in our city limits and what revenue it generates, versus the expenses to operate," she said, before requesting a breakdown of figures for Kentuck Park.

It's worth pointing out that PARA reports 18% of its memberships are Northport residents, but a disconnect presented itself in the data when scrutinized by Northport officials on Thursday.

For instance, after PARA reported $700,000 in revenue generated by its park shelter rentals systemwide, there was no readily available data relating to revenue generated by rentals of the pavilions at Kentuck Park. Conversely, Northport officials were provided data that showed $38,000 generated this year by rentals at the Northport Community Center.

This eventually transitioned to conversations regarding PARA activity centers that are not turning any kind of profits.

"Our activity centers are losing money," Crady said. "If we were to break even on our activity centers, we would have to raise the membership rates."

Webb, who previously participated in past funding requests from PARA in her role as Tuscaloosa city attorney, once again posed the possibility of closing some of the struggling centers — such as the McAbee Activity Center and the Phelps Center.

"You have to start thinking as a business instead of as somebody that's guaranteed funding," she said."I think that's the question: if the Faucett Center is closer to breaking even than the others, why are you asking for continued subsidization of those that are so underfunded and are under revenue generating that are so costly to operate? It seems like there are several centers that lose money and is that something the community is willing to bear or is it time to trim down and focus on what we want and what our citizens want?"

In response, Crady listed the different efforts recently undertaken in an attempt to right the ship financially for PARA's underperforming centers.

"In the last month or a month and a half ago, we made a long list of things that we wanted to achieve, too, in order to increase our profitability," he said. "And so in that list, there's shelter and rental increases, potential membership increases. We've reduced hours at our centers already. We've also looked into reducing front desk staff. We've also eliminated two positions that have recently retired. So there is a long list of things we've done to move closer to that point."

Still, the debate over profitability segued into renewed discussion over the expressed desires of the city and its residents. Among the wishlist items, Webb mentioned a proposed pickleball facility at the tennis courts at Kentuck Park.

"We've talked about pickleball umpteen times and there's not a listing [in PARA's capital funding request] for upgrading the existing tennis courts to pickleball, resurfacing and doing pickleball," Webb pointed out. "I think there needs to be greater communication about what the wants and desires of Northport are. It's just hard for me to recommend any capital upgrades at this point."

While no mention was given — or consensus apparent among Northport officials — regarding PARA's base appropriation request of $500,000 for the coming fiscal year, Webb lamented the items not included in the $1.6 million capital request.

"I think looking at your capital request, I don't think this adequately reflects what Northport's vision is for things," she said. "So I would encourage you to engage with the mayor, council and myself, especially since we have a recreational master plan that's being developed and should be released soon. How do y'all fit into that? What facility upgrades would be needed to achieve the things we are recommending in our recreational master plan."

At the conclusion of Thursday's meeting, no action was taken by the Northport City Council's Finance Committee.

Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Tuscaloosa Patch? Maybe you're interested in having your business become one of the latest sponsors for Tuscaloosa Patch? Email all inquiries to me at ryan.phillips@patch.com.