Park board gets closer to finance committee

Monday night’s meeting revealed that the Hill County Park Board is one step closer to creating a finance and planning committee, as well as having an official park warden.

A volunteer, Lou Hagener, presented board members and the public with a draft description of a potential finance and planning committee put together by an ad hoc committee.

The draft says the committee will develop and recommend protocol for setting fees for products, services and uses of the parks. It will ask for input from the public as well as from experts on finance, fundraising, fee setting and costs on any other things the parks will consider. The committee will review fees for activities occurring in the parks to reflect fair value while meeting the needs of Hill County parks. It will support the park management in prioritizing projects, developing budget timelines and submitting them in a timely manner. It will develop an annual one-page public information fact sheet explaining park financing. It will also prepare applications for grants and coordinate fundraisers.

Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar said an example of how the committee would get involved would be in the planning of a hypothetical trail. The committee would analyze the cost of the trail and whether it’s worth building, so as to avoid potentially wasting money, he said.

The committee will be made up of between five and nine members, at least one but no more than two of which will be board members. It will include Edgar as well as between two to six community members. The chair of the committee will be appointed by the chair of the board.

The criteria for potential committee members are that they must have a genuine interest in Hill County parks and the financial well being of Beaver Creek Park, and Hill County residents will have preference over out-of-county residents. Members will serve a three-year term. Initial terms will be staggered by one, two and three years, the draft says.

Those interested in becoming committee members can submit their name to a board member or be nominated. Applications can be picked up at the Hill County Commission Office at the courthouse.

Board Chair Steve Mariani said the finance committee would serve all county parks.

The public can comment on the proposed committee for the next 30 days.

In other board matters, board member Dave Wilson brought up a language technicality in Edgar’s job description that had prevented Edgar from being recognized as the official park warden. Edgar said he’d been mostly acting as the warden anyway, with the exception of not having the power to write tickets.

Wilson said Edgar’s job description has been updated and the board members voted to submit the draft to Hill County Human Resources where it will be reviewed for approval.

Wilson and Edgar said this is something the board has been trying to get done for some time.

Some of the things Edgar would be able to do, should he become the official warden, would be to ticket people for violating noise ordinances, breaking the 14-day camping rule or cutting down trees.

Board members said they expect the process to be over before the new year.