(A) Generally. State and federal grants for parks, recreation and open space are extremely limited and increasingly competitive:
(1) Consider establishing a “Recreation Endowment Fund” for land acquisition or special projects, supported by donations and fundraisers;
(2) Consider creative ways of financing, such as offering to name facilities after persons or groups or businesses that pay for them (such as ball fields or tennis courts, or putting donor plaques on park benches);
(3) Establish a “memorial arboretum” where people can fund the planting of a tree in memorial to a person. This should involve a small memorial sign and an invitation to the donor to help plant the tree. An overall landscape plan should be completed including many different types of native trees, allowing people to select the one they wish to pay for. Boy Scout troops also are often interested in participating in tree planting programs in parks;
(4) Establish and periodically update a “capital improvements program”; and
(5) Incorporate bird, bat or butterfly boxes and no mow zones wherever it makes sense.
(B) Major types of financing.
(1) A combination of traditional and more creative financing methods will be needed to put this plan into action. The following major types of financing should be considered.
(a) Recreation fees by developers. This will probably continue to be a major source for financing new recreation facilities and parkland in the borough. These fees are paid by developers of new homes to compensate the borough for the increased demand caused by each new household. Consideration should be given to charging reasonable recreation fees on new business developments to offset the demand on public recreation facilities caused by nonresident employees.
(b) User fees. These are fees paid directly by the people who use a program or facility. The intent is that certain offerings, such as adult fitness programs, can sometimes be run in a business-like fashion for greater efficiency and a fair distribution of costs. Also, fee systems can help to avoid unnecessary costs. For example, if coin operated lights are used on a basketball court, the electricity is only being used when the court is actually being used. Care is needed to make sure that lower income families are not excluded because they cannot afford high fees. Also, user fees should not be charged if it would be too costly or administratively burdensome to collect.
(c) Bond issue. For very large capital expenses, borrowing often makes sense. This avoids the need for large short-term tax increases and spreads the payments over the many years over which the benefits will be enjoyed. The main disadvantage is the high costs of interest on the debt.
(d) Local, state and federal grants. Significant amounts of grants cannot be expected to be available for parks or open space. Even if grants would be available, it must be remembered that grant programs often require significant work to prepare a competitive application and to fulfill all of the administrative requirements. Also, if federal or state grants are used, all non-borough workers must be paid the “prevailing union wage rates”. This substantially increases the costs of most construction projects.
(2) To increase the borough’s chances of receiving grants, it should only seek grants for those types of projects that are likely to rank highly according to the program’s official selection criteria.
(a) Environmental groups. To preserve key lands, the borough should seek assistance from major environmental groups. These groups can often provide technical assistance to the borough, financial advice to the landowner on major tax advantages and possible assistance in fundraising. These groups include the Wildlands Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy and the Bushkill Stream Conservancy.
(b) Annual appropriations. The borough will need to decide each year whether appropriations from the borough’s General Fund should be set aside to develop facilities or to sponsor types of programs that cannot be fully funded through user fees.
(c) Sponsorships and private grants. Area businesses or groups may be willing to contribute towards specific programs in return for public recognition.
(d) Gifts. The tax advantages of donating land and materials should be fully publicized. Also, contributors should receive public recognition to spur contributions. Specific businesses that might have excess of a needed item that could be approached for donations. A “gifts catalog” would be excellent ways of letting people know what the borough needs, so they could choose exactly what items, materials or services they wish to contribute or pay for.
(C) Financial planning. Major financial tools will be needed to carry out this plan:
(1) An annual recreation operating budget for routine expenses;
(2) An annual capital expenses budget for large expenses serving a long-term need; and
(3) A five or seven year long “capital improvements” program to plan for large expenses proposed for future years, the two later items to be funded by developer recreation fees.
(D) Planning for capital improvements.
(1) “Capital” improvements are projects involving a substantial expense for the construction or improvement of major public facilities. These are extraordinary expenses that occur only on occasion, opposed to “operating” expenses that occur every year.
(2) To carefully prepare for major future expenses and to help decide when they should be accomplished, many communities have found great value in a formal “capital improvements program” (CIP). A CIP is a process of systematically and rationally identifying, planning and budgeting very large capital expenses, such as purchasing parkland and developing facilities.
(3) This allows communities to avoid short-term tax hikes, to set aside funds ahead of time for large projects, which can greatly lower the total cost of a project by reducing borrowing and to efficiently combine any borrowing needs into one bond issue.
(4) A CIP should list all projects needed, their costs, the year each project will occur and the source of its financing. This also allows many different projects to be compared with each other to effectively prioritize different needs.
(Ord. passed 8-3-2015)