Kevin Leininger is so right!
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 9/11/08 @ 8:19 am - Filed Under Featured, Local Politics
Kevin Leininger has a great piece in the September 6th News-Sentinel. It is entitled “Inactive parks” sale is wise.”
There are a number of parks properties scattered around Fort Wayne that are not being used; however, the Parks Department is paying to mow their grass and somewhat maintain them.
Per the article Al Moll, Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Director, thinks he has 400 acres of property he wants to sell. This land he wants to sell is 400 acres of “neighborhood park strips, vacant lots, homes, and other misfit properties his department has accepted over the years but no longer can afford.”
Also per the article “it costs the Fort Wayne Parks Department $4000 per acre to mow, snowplow, and otherwise maintain a single acre - or about 1.6 million dollars for 400 acres.”
Also per the article the Fort Wayne Parks Department is looking to cut costs due to property tax changes made by Mitch Daniels and the Legislature this last session.
And lastly the article points out that land held by the Parks Department generates no property tax revenue.
I have several thoughts about this:
- This is one of the intended consequences of the property tax reform Mitch Daniels pushed through the Legislature this year. He wanted to cut property taxes and force local governent units to look at their budgets carefully.
- Al Moll is doing the right thing. He can bring in some money for selling the properties and he can cut maintenance costs significantly.
- Why on Earth did the Parks Department accept homes and vacant lots and agree to take them off the property tax rolls and agree to maintain them in the first place? Al Moll should look into this and change the provedures so this never happens again.
- My neighborhood was annexed by Fort Wayne. We have a neighborhood park strip; however, we have to pay to maintain it not the City. Why does the City Parks Department maintain neighborhood park strips in some other neighborhoods in the first place?
- Why does it cost $4000 an acre to maintain property owned by the Parks Department. I live on and own one acre of land in Fort Wayne. It does NOT cost me $4000 per year to maintain it. This cost seems high and should be investigated by the Parks Department. I also own part of an office condominium project it Fort Wayne and it does not cost us anywhere near $4000 an acre to have it professionally maintained by outside contractors!
Mike Sylvester
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3 Responses to “Kevin Leininger is so right!”
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Mike-I have mixed emotions about this proposal. Cutting the City cost to maintain these parcels is the right thing to do but some of them might be better given to neighborhood assns. rather than sold if they are currently being used for recreation by local residents.I believe the Parks Dept has had a policy for several years that they would not accept land unless it was accompanied by an endowment sufficient to maintain it in perpetuity.
They may roll all maintenance costs into one amount and divide it by the number of total acres to get that figure. Obviously, some parks require more work than others, golf courses and Lakeside park just to name a couple of examples.
Before we sell off the land maybe we should get corporate sponsorship with secondary naming rights of the parks, EG: The Lake Side Rose Gardens dedicated to the memory of XXX for the Citizens of Fort Wayne by Young’s Greenhouse and Armstrong Flowers, etc.; and particular features in the parks could be underwritten this way also, eg: The particular Arboretum Chapel in the LSRG could be sponsored by The Jewish Federation of Fort Wayne or what ever they are called these days. Just an idea.