DeKalb Cuts Back on Capital Projects to Pay Cities’ HOST Funding
Decatur Metro | November 13, 2011Though DeKalb’s cities recently lost a long fought battle with the county over a decade of HOST money not paid, they still will soon join Dunwoody to get their fair share of local sales tax money to be used for capital improvement projects inside their borders. That amounts to around a cool million dollars a year for Decatur, at last check. The AJC has a nice little article on DeKalb’s recent road and sidewalk project cutbacks and a couple lines about Decatur’s initial plans towards the end….
Decatur plans to use $500,000 of its projected $2.3 million share on an ongoing renovation to its 53-year-old recreation center. The $6.9 million overhaul is expected to take a year.
The city also could use HOST money on everything from sidewalk projects to park pavilions, though no official list has been prepared. City Manager Peggy Merriss said she plans to introduce a policy for spending that money in February.
“We have got plenty of projects that need to be done,” Merriss said. “We won’t have any problem coming up with a list.”
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Well, at least thanks to eSPLOST, DeKalb can still go forward with the installation of artificial turf at about 5 of its high school football stadiums at $900,000 a pop. Who needs sidewalks when the kids can play footballl on plastic grass?
Nice!
$6.9 million to renovate the rec. center???!!!
For what, recreation?!
Have you been to the recreation center lately? I’ve been in three different sections of it over the past few months, and while it’s not exactly crumbling, it does have shades of pre-liberation East Germany about it, and is seriously beneath the condition of most of our public facilities.
It’s hard for me to gauge what $6.9 will buy us in a renovation, but if it allows us to offer a safe and well-functioning public facility for our residents I’m in favor of it. As it stands now, without any renovation, I’d expect it to be condemned within 5-10 years, leaving us with nothing to replace its utility.
Several years ago the people of Decatur passed a bond referendum to pay for a whole bunch of public facilities such as parks, fire stations and the like. Renovation of the Rec Center on Sycamore was included on the list, but not fully funded. It looks like the HOST funds will be used to finish it off. Presumably people who don’t believe in spending tax money on public facilities voted against the bond referendum …… and lost. I suggest you get over it and move on.
for clarity’s sake, I’m referring to Ebster facility on W. Trinity. The recreation facility next to the library seems to be, while dated, in better shape.