Maybe I’m just getting old, but more and more as of late, current events stir the echoes of my childhood.
A week from today, when the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors hold their next meeting, supervisors are expected to discuss the finding of a review of the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority. The CLRA operates under an inter-local agreement between the county and the city of Columbus.
That review, conducted by RF Outdoor Consulting, LLC, was commissioned by the supervisors in June. It consists of just nine pages, and is generally complementary of the parks system, although it does note there are areas for improvement.
What is likely to capture the attention of the supervisors is the portion of the report that deals with the budget analysis. That report shows that since 1993, the city’s capital improvement contributions to the CLRA has been roughly $1.2 million compared to the county’s contributions of almost $5.6 million. That number is a bit distorted, however, since much of that difference can be attributed to the financing of the Columbus Soccer Complex, where the county provided most of the money with the city providing in-kind services and assuming the costs of upgrades at the Trotter Center.
It is likely that the report could have started and ended there, of course. I suspect that critical piece of information was what Board President Harry Sanders had in mind all along.
This is less about the CLRA than it is about the Sanders-led board of supervisors wanting to take their ball and go home.
That leads me back to my childhood. When I was a little kid, one of my favorite storybooks was about Country Mouse and City Mouse.
In that book, Country Mouse and City Mouse took turns visiting each other’s homes, where each mouse quickly realized how different life was for the other mouse. Country Mouse was poor. You could tell that by the ragged overalls and beat up straw hat he wore. City Mouse was wealthy. He wore a bow-tie and nice, clean clothes. Being open-minded, each mouse noted how different life was for the other mouse and grew to appreciate and celebrate those differences.
That is not the story unfolding today, however. For starters, Country Mouse is wealthy and City Mouse is poor. Also, they don’t seem to like each other very much.
County Mouse is pretty sick of what he views as a one-sided partnership in the CLRA.
In fact, Sanders, the Head County Mouse, noted in that June board meeting that it was unfair that a kid from Crawford had to travel all the way to Propst Park to practice and play ball.
This appears to be a recent concern, though. About a year ago, the supervisors refused to approve funding that would provide electricity to the ballpark at Plum Grove so that it could connect to an electronic scoreboard that had been donated by Weyerhaeuser. Yes, way back in 2015, the idea that ballparks were needed in the county was not much of concern by the Head County Mouse.
It’s clear there is some sentiment on the board that the county should end its inter-local agreement and establish its own recreation department. I suspect that was what this CLRA report was really all about.
I assume the county is also fine with giving back the tax dollars city residents provide to the county’s general fund, too.
While I would much prefer that the county mice and city mice continue to play together in the CLRA’s centrally located parks, I understand that you can’t force the issue.
So if the county mice insist on parting company with the city mice, let’s go all the way.
I believe the city mice should build a wall around the whole city and make the county mice pay for it because parks are just the tip of the iceberg.
If it is unfair for county mice to have to go to Columbus to play ball, it is equally unfair that county mice must go all the way to city to shop, dine, go to the movies, etc.
Hey, if county mice are content to have their dining experiences confined to gas station fried chicken and buy their clothes at feed stores, city mice are in no position to judge.
But I do think the head County Mouse had better think it over.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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