Vote in Favor of Recreation: An Essential Service

Most residents of Peachtree City consider the police and fire departments and public works as essential services, but recreation is also essential on at least as many levels as the physical safety, property protection, and community maintenance provided by these departments. Recreation meets human health and social connection needs, is essential for people of all ages, supports economic development, and makes our community vibrant. Like other essential services, we must plan for it based on a cost-benefit standpoint- not just the financial cost but the quality of life and health benefits our residents will experience and how it enhances our community. An underlying point is everyone participates in recreation of some kind.

Everyone has different recreational pursuits. Youth participate in school and club sports as do adults and seniors. In Peachtree City, some people like the Night Market and Sunset Sounds. Some attend musical events at the Fred. Saturday morning relaxing with a book or magazine at the library is recreation. Seniors take their grandkids to All Children’s Playground. Public and private fitness and athletic facilities cater to all ages, and given we live in Peachtree City, I would be remiss to not mention our golf courses, where a good many retirees work on their game.

Recreation is important as people age. Because recreation meets some of the main determinants of human health span, namely, the quantity and quality of physical activity and mental and social engagement, it is incumbent on municipalities to support healthy aging in place, and since many seniors live on a fixed budget it should be done with little or no out-of-pocket cost. Peachtree City Recreation’s programming supports all these requirements.

My wife signed us up as a couple to take ballroom dance at the Glenloch Recreation Center, and at $50 per month, it is much more cost-effective than a contract at a private dance studio, most of which require a significant drive from Peachtree City. My sons studied kendo at Glenloch, and in traditional material arts, to keep advancing belts, it is a requirement to instruct, but many practitioners don’t want to go through the hassle of starting a business so they offer their services through schools, the YMCA, or rec centers at nominal costs. Everyone benefits in this situation, and local businesses still have a part in recreation, too.

Our local Fleet Feet running store would not have opened unless there was a sizeable running and walking community to support it. Peachtree City has open retail space, and we need merchants to fill it. Additionally, all kinds of sporting events and seasonal activities, including the Shakerag Arts and Crafts Festival, bring in participants and family members, and they may stay and spend money outside the event. When I participated again this year in the Macon Tracks Labor Day 10k, my wife and I stayed at a Macon hotel and had a nice meal downtown the night before the race. After the race we did some sightseeing and had another meal in Macon. Recreation-related tourism brings in money, and recreation supports more than just retail businesses.

Recreational opportunities support broader economic development. When business leaders decide to expand, relocate, or start operations in an area, they consider the available workforce, physical infrastructure, available market, taxes, and a host of personnel and financial considerations, but the people who run those businesses also have their own personal lives and absolutely consider the quality of life for themselves and their families. The anti-recreation voices including past city staff and elected officials in Peachtree City think development is only a financial question, and it absolutely is not.

One of the most disingenuous things past City administrations have done is to defer maintenance on facilities. When this happens, residents stop using them because they get run down, and the administration decides to close the facility citing lack of use. The reality is the lack of maintenance came before the lack of use. The same deliberation that City staff, mayor, and council put into new projects should be applied to ongoing maintenance, and, ultimately, if something truly isn’t being used, being deliberate about its closure, meaning go on the record when deciding not to maintain a facility or closing it and layout the financial reasoning.

Since recreation in the city is largely supported by the various taxes and fees Peachtree City collects (and taxpayers pay), it is imperative that we consider how to effectively use taxpayer money. User fees for high-cost-of-maintenance facilities such as the Kedron pool or the tennis center are appropriate, but for those facilities that have little ongoing maintenance requirements, the desire to nickel-and-dime taxpaying residents to use the lights at a ball field, for example, is insulting- an average residential homestead tax bill already includes not a small amount of tax towards recreation. When considering a new recreational investment, the ongoing maintenance should be considered, not just the upfront cost and estimated users, and that should be presented as part of any proposal.

The anti-recreation voices in Peachtree City fairly ask the question of why their tax dollars should go to a pickleball facility, for example, when they don’t play pickleball. I’ve already laid out how recreation broadly benefits the community, but from a personal standpoint, I’d like to point out that I don’t play pickleball, tennis, or any ball sport, or go to the Fred or many of the other facilities, but I like that other residents can. Why should my tax dollars support those facilities? The same can be said for everyone- there are services you use that I don’t use, but I’m fine with paying taxes towards them. Imagine the mayhem of being able to direct your taxes; ultimately, what we pay for and have as a community is based on the values the electorate, elected officials, and city staff have. If you don’t share those values, there is an opportunity to make your voice heard every two years.

For our Mayoral candidates, I know that Ms. Learnard is a member of at least one sports club and an avid pickleball player, and I know that Mr. Brown championed the reconstruction of the boardwalk in Flat Creek Nature Area and for expanded library hours.

My final thought is a call to action for anyone who participates in recreation in any form: go vote for the candidate who will support it and not nickel-and-dime it to death. If everyone who participates in recreation offered by the City understood its costs and voted to support it, there would never be another facility allowed to fall into disrepair, and no more “is the juice worth the squeeze thinking.” I can envision a future where athletic fields, parks, facilities and all the buildings and equipment that go with them are maintained for the benefit of all in Peachtree City and support our community and its growth.

Sincerely,

Paul