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I <br />Commissioner Bird reported that we have been looking for a <br />way to expand our facilities since we still have a lot of areas <br />in the county that don't have the programs and opportunities <br />other areas have, and he felt it is in all of our best interests <br />to try to satisfy that inequity and try to provide the same <br />recreational opportunities countywide as best as we possibly can. <br />Commissioner Bird continued that he, along with City Finance <br />Director Tom Nason, were on a committee working on this a few <br />years back, and that committee felt some sort of countywide <br />recreation made a lot of sense and that it could be done. <br />Commissioner Bird believed the political climate is right, and if <br />we are ever going to take some major step forward in some form of <br />consolidation of our recreation departments, now is the time to <br />do it. The City of Sebastian is still growing and, in fact, is <br />projected to outgrow Vero Beach in the coming years. They are in <br />their infancy as far as recreation is concerned, and he believed <br />it is a crossroads for them also. The County is providing some <br />recreation there, but the City of Sebastian does not run any <br />major recreational program. Commissioner Bird advised that we <br />recently had an outside consultant do an impact user fee study <br />for us. The report was presented to the Commission, and it <br />basically deals with three areas of potential funding: 1) impact <br />fees; 2) user fees; and 3) some form of taxing district. The <br />Commission pretty well agreed that we would like to proceed <br />further with the impact and user fee portion and give additional <br />consideration to the possibility of a taxing district. <br />Commissioner Bird noted that last year we worked out an <br />agreement with the City of Vero Beach to utilize Pat Callahan as <br />Director of the of the County's Recreation program, which has <br />worked very well. We have a very small recreation staff; Mrs. <br />Callahan has been a big help to them in improving our programs; <br />and Commissioner Bird felt this is another step in the right <br />direction. <br />2 <br />JUN 81988 BOOK 7E�,cr 02 <br />