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Hernando Today

County Severs Agreement With YMCA

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By MICHAEL D. BATES

Published: July 19, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Budgetary constraints have forced the county to sever its contractual agreement to maintain two ballfields at the YMCA.

Total cost savings to the county is an estimated $29,000 a year, Parks and Recreation Director Pat Fagan said. It also means the layoff of one part-time parks employee.

The move frees up other parks employees who normally maintain the YMCA ballfields to work on county-owned parks, some of which are in a state of disrepair because of the year-long drought.

In an agreement county commissioners entered into with the YMCA of the Suncoast in June 2005, the county agreed to take make improvements and maintain that non-profit agency's two softball fields.

In exchange, the YMCA would allow local girls softball leagues to use the fields. In 2005, fields were at a premium.

But since then the county spent $250,000 and opened two new girls' softball fields at Anderson Snow Park, near the Suncoast Parkway.

In addition to the part-time position lost, the parks department lost two full-time employees last year through attrition and were not replaced due to a county hiring freeze.

In all, the county parks department now employs 37 full-time workers and four part-timers.

Fagan said he would work with the YMCA to meet that agency's program needs in county-owned parks where space is available. The agreement is scheduled to end Oct. 10, 2008.

The county, he added, will do "whatever we can do to continue with a good relationship."

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.

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