For those of you in the Tampa Bay area, a message from our friends at the Southwest Florida Bicycle United Dealers (SWFBUD). The rest of you are off the hook:
As you may know, Hillsborough County’s proposed budget calls for closing Flatwoods county park Monday and Tuesday.
This is unacceptable and SWFBUD (South West Florida Bicycle United Dealers) is asking bicyclists and park users to join a 5-mile bike ride to the county building on July 16 to tell the commissioners to Keep Flatwoods Open 7 Days a Week at a budget hearing at 6 PM in downtown Tampa.
SWFBUD is announcing a “Keep Flatwoods Park Open 7 Days a Week” Bike Ride from the Seminole Heights Garden Center at 5800 Central Avenue to the County Government Center for the first Budget Hearing on July 16. Email your contacts and tell others.
5PM: Meet in front of garden center on Central Avenue, a half-mile north of Hillsborough Avenue. Lots of space to park if necessary.
5:30PM: Reach county government building in downtown Tampa and sign up to speak.
6PM: Hearing begins.
Also, make your voice heard:
Call the budget hotline at 813-307-8337 at tell the county to keep Flatwoods open 7 Days a week.
Send an email to hcbudget@hillsboroughcounty.org
And show up July 16 at 6PM at County Government Center to speak at the hearing.
I have contacted the offices of all 7 County Commissioners and the aides for each commissioner provided the following information:
Rose Ferlita: Not available. Will get back to SWFBUD possibly tomorrow.
Ken Hagan: Opposes closing the park two days a week. He’s asking budget officials to look for ways to restore the two days.
Kevin White: Aide will pass message to White to keep Flatwoods open 7 days a week..
Al Higginbothom. Supports not raising taxes. Looking for money to restoring those two days by knocking out “dead weight” in the budget and streamlining and cutting other areas. “We’re trying to put money back to parks and see if cuts whether in other places.
Jim Norman: Jim is going to look to do everything he can to keep it open.
Kevin Beckner: Aide doesn’t know and aide said Kevin Beckner will call.
Mark Sharpe: Eric the aide is getting a lot of requests and it’s an issue to be determined. “We’re getting hit on it on a daily basis. We hit a nerve on this one.”
Budget Public Hearings (all starting at 6 p.m.) and Public Comment is taken:
Thursday, June 9, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 (First State-Required Public Hearing to adopt tentative millage rates and a tentative budget)
Thursday, September 17, 2009 (Second State-Required Public Hearing to adopt final millage rates and the FY 10 operating and capital budgets)
Budget Workshops (all starting at 1:30 p.m.) and NO Public Comment is taken:
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 (if needed)
Thursday, July 30, 2009 – Budget Reconciliation
The more the merrier…let’s save this county gem from the budget chopping block!
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Hi Jack, I’m happy to see what Flatwoods has grown into since I was last there. I remember the teary phone calls from my best friends as she battled with her employer swfwmd to develop the original trails in Flatwoods and Morris Bridge back in the early to mid nineties. I have fond memories of walking those woods to scout trail routes and do plant surveys. I spent many weekends in those woods helping to build those trails.
I see it’s listed as a county park now. What does the county save by not allowing daily access? It’s still the property of swfwmd and I’m also pretty sure that all of the states water management lands must be accessible by the public. Which may be an angle to help the fight. Good luck in the battle.
So: How many of you would be willing to pay a fee to enter any park? How about, say a dollar a a wheel? ($4 for cars, $2 for bikes and free for pedestrians)? ALL government agencies are hurting financially at every level right now, and, in all honesty, parks are gravy. They are not required by any law, and are a gift to the citizens. You may see a lot more “pay for use” situations when it comes to public amenties in the future.
I’ve paid a lot of “entrance money” to local, state and Federal parks over the years. I am not adverse to it at all. In some of the cases, a money dropbox took the place of a park ranger!
We tried donation drop boxes out on the Friendship Trail Bridge. We didn’t get what you’d call an overwhelming response. The honor system falls apart pretty quick.
Another option to help keep parks open is to arrange for citizen volunteers to help maintian and oversee the park. Every little bit helps when it comes to supplimenting a limited budget.
Pay a dollar a wheel? Still cheaper than a gym or a therapist!
Yeah, tough things happen when the area runs out of tax money to fund projects and services. They COULD shutter the parks system altogether.
Look, everyone’s got their pet service or facility, and when budget crises come, some of these favorites get axed. I hope Flatwoods survives; right now, going to a “pay to use” structure starts making a lot of sense .
GR nailed it: Everyone has their own idea of what the government MUST do, but: When it comes right down to it, there’s really very little the government is required by law to do. Taxes are collected to fund services, but after you take care of the basics like law enforcement and fire protection what else does the governmment really HAVE to do? Hint: Parks and bicycle facilities are unfortunately not high on the list. As we see our tax revenue levels continue to slide, we are also going to see just exactly how little the government will be able to offer its citizens in the way of non-essential amenities.
I can guarantee you this: GR and I both already long for the days of the Big Housing Bubble, back when goverments had plenty of money and could do stuff.
What was that? Two years ago?
Amen, Chip — and this loss of tax revenue has affected me in ways you and I have already discussed privately. Not a whole lot of sympathy on my end these days…
The County Commission has so much pork in their budget this shouldn’t even be an issue. According to the Parks Dept Mark Thornton I just received word that the savings attributed by closing the Flatwoods 2 days a week is $483,390 yet other places in the budget proposal show they intend on giving the Sports Commission, a private group, $700,000. The budget is loaded with special interests getting public dollars and the County Administrator just handed out double digit raises to some of her employees while suggesting cutting 900 jobs. Tell the County Commission to get their priorities straight! You can contact them here
http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/bocc/about/contactus.cfm
Please NOTE the meeting has been moved from County Center to the All People’s Life Center on the 16th.
County link is here
http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/budgetmatters/workshops/
I primarily visit Flatwoods Park 5 or 6 days a week to run and walk the loop, starting at the Bruce B Downs Blvd entrance, but occasionally cycle as well. I’d hate to see the park close on Mon and Tues or entirely. It would add excessive expense to have someone at the entrance collecting fees (especially during slow periods) and the “honor system” may not be effective. I’d support an annual “park pass” program, either specifically for Flatwoods or another option for multiple parks for others. A volunteer program may also help mitigate the cost increases, but could pose insurance issues to overcome. I’d volunteer to work at the park at least one full day per week….just some thoughts…I just noticed this posting.