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

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Tuscaloosa County Park & Recreation Authority is requesting a 14% increase in funding from the City of Tuscaloosa, as city officials mull the crucial details of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

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The agency, which receives funding from the City of Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County and the City of Northport, touted upticks in membership for its facilities on Tuesday.

"People are actually using the parks and our facilities and programs at unprecedented rates," PARA Executive Director Gary Minor said, mentioning the immediate returns for the Bowers Park pool that exceed pre-pandemic levels. "Memberships are up in our activity programs and participation in our youth programs are at an all-time high."

ALSO READ: Bowers Park Pool Set To Reopen In May After 'Extended Hiatus'

However, the rising costs of labor, supplies and just about everything else factored in greatly in PARA's request for a substantial boost in funding from its largest benefactor.

PARA Director of Finance Michael Crady made the funding pitch to the Tuscaloosa City Council's Finance Committee on Tuesday, where he provided the following bits of data ...

• PARA reports a 26% year-over-year increase for membership at its facilities, the largest among these being a 184% boost in membership for the Bowers Park pool. This is trailed by a 59% membership increase at the Tuscaloosa Tennis Center and 54% at Ol' Colony Golf Complex.
• One of the biggest selling points for the efficacy of its programs could be seen in the uptick for attendance in senior programs — a rise of 456% in program attendance.
• The agency also reported a $900,000 increase in payroll for the current fiscal year, which comes after the agency laid off more than half of its workforce in March of 2020.
• The layoffs in workforce resulted in a temporary, yet still astounding, 5,204% increase in unemployment payouts, as many of those employees collected unemployment for six to nine months. Crady commented: "Over the last 18 months, we’ve been hit with that expense because it pays in arrears. So that’s something we do expect to decrease as times goes on, but it's something that’s impacted our bottom line."
• Amid rising fuel costs, PARA cites a 58% rise in the budgetary needs to cover fueling its vehicles.
• On a positive note, PARA facilities saw an increase of 112% for attendance at events when its facilities are rented, climbing from 53,244 in fiscal year 2021 to 112,863 attendees during the current fiscal year.
• In other funding requests, PARA has asked for $3.5 million in funding from Tuscaloosa County and $500,000 from the City of Northport for the coming year.

Apart from the individual costs and questions over revenue, Crady was asked about just how much PARA generates itself toward its estimated annual operating budget of approximately $14 million.

It's also worth noting that, for its reserves, the agency has approximately $3 million, which can then be used to cover budget shortfalls or deficits.

"We generate 43% of our own budget," Crady explained. "We have options of what can do. We’ve raised rates on rentals. We have not raised rates on memberships yet. Coming out of the pandemic, our membership was so low that we’ve been hesitant to increase the price to not deter people from coming back to PARA, but that’s an option we have on the table."

Indeed, Crady said PARA had recently raised rental fees by 25%-30%.

In total, the base appropriation request by PARA to the City of Tuscaloosa is approximately $4.7 million, with the agency also requesting $150,000 for improvements to the airfield at Palmore Park and another $55,000 for a feasibility study regarding a nine-hole expansion at Ol' Colony Golf Complex.

For its special appropriation request — which includes $12,540 for the McDonald Hughes Center and $162,906 for the Tuscaloosa Tennis Center — that request climbs to just over $4.9 million.

"If we had $15 million or more [in total funding], we would be able to operate extremely high quality services," Crady said of PARA's overall operating budget.

Still, concerns persisted among city officials on Tuesday, which were voiced by Mayor Walt Maddox and primarily center on facility cleanliness and operating hours at facilities like the McAbee Center.

Maddox insisted that despite the City of Tuscaloosa being the largest financial contributor to PARA, the hours at the McAbee Center had changed, while the hours at the Faucett Brothers Activity Center in Northport have remained the same. This thought was presented to PARA officials on Tuesday after constituents provided feedback to the mayor and Council President Kip Tyner during a recent town hall event.

For Maddox, it all boiled down to communication.

"I just wish it could have been reached out to us in advance to find something, because we were hit with that and didn’t necessarily understand it or have a good response," the mayor said of constituent questions regarding operating hours for PARA facilities. "I’m proud of Northport for stepping up, don’t get me wrong, but again it just seems very unfair that our constituents who are paying tax dollars more than another jurisdiction, [that Northport's facility] is newer, brighter and stays open."

Minor explained that the McAbee Center is used by FOCUS on Senior Citizens of Tuscaloosa, which opens the facility for its programming at 6 a.m. and uses the facility until 8 a.m., at which point PARA programming commences.

While differences in opinion were definitely on display, it's crucial to note the positive feedback expressed by council members like District 4's Lee Busby.

"I also appreciate the difficulty of serving three bosses," Busby said. "I will tell you, in terms of an editorial comment, the comments I get from my district are: fixing holes in the road, keeping the noise down and I love PARA. I don’t know which facilities mine are going to, but what flows back to me is praise."

District 6 Councilor John Faile concurred, saying he has received overwhelmingly positive feedback regarding the reopening of the Bowers Park pool.

As talks winded down and no action was taken on Tuesday, Maddox stressed the importance of communication and partnerships in maintaining PARA facilities. This included a recent collaboration of the City of Tuscaloosa and Tuscaloosa County that saw the city help pour concrete at the Bobby Miller Activity Center.

"I know that Mr. Tyner, Mr. Faile and myself would want to work with you to find a solution to that problem [of operating hours]," Maddox said. "If you communicate with us, I think we might be able to help."

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