ED TAYLOR

The Vero Beach City Council has made a preemptive strike on an item scheduled for debate during the month of March. Mayor Dick Winger had placed a proposal for paid beach parking on the agenda for a March meeting; however, after stating that there was no need to hear about the issue for two more months the item was addressed on January 7 and unanimously voted down. Conceding that “it is not going to win,” Councilmember Pilar Turner moved to remove the issue from the agenda. The motion was unanimously adopted.

The council also defeated a proposal from Rob Slezak, the city’s director of recreation, to impose daily fees on the use of certain picnic pavilions located on city parks. Slezak indicated to the council prior to his presentation that he was not terribly enthusiastic about charging people to use park facilities but did state that it was a potential source of revenue for the city. The suggested rental fee for the daily use of a double or triple wide city park pavilion ranged from a $50 fee up to $140 with different rates proposed for city and county residents. The council voted unanimously not to impose such fees.

Councilmember Jay Kramer suggested that keeping track of the money coming in will “cost us more than we will be taking in.” He also stated that policing such a procedure would be costly.

Mayor Dick Winger stated that the parks are for the people and should be available for use without any monetary charge. The mayor stated that there was a high degree of poverty in Indian River County and enjoyment of the city parks and the associated facilities should be made available to all.

“It galls me to think about charging people to use these facilities,” the mayor added.

Without specifically endorsing the proposal, Slezak stated that the city did incur certain expenses associated with these pavilions and the daily rental fees would help offset the maintenance costs. The recreation director stated that each pavilion is cleaned on a daily basis by city staff and that the cleaning included the regular maintenance of the charcoal grills and park restrooms.

While voting against the proposal, Councilmember Pilar Turner did encourage Slezak to continue to seek areas within his department that could be potential revenue sources for the city.

The council did, however, vote unanimously for an across-the-board rate hike for use of the racquetball and tennis facilities at Riverside Park. The rates do distinguish between city and out of city residents and offer a substantially lower fee for residents of Vero Beach proper. Turner expressed concern that the proposal, as presented to the council, did not appear to increase the rates for the summer camp program and the youth tennis clinics. When shown by Slezak how rates for these programs would be raised consistently with other rates, Turner then voted with the remainder of the council for approval of the fee hike for use of the facilities at the Riverside Racquet Complex.

The council also voted to spend $143,700 to Treasure Coast Construction Management for a three-year contract to clean the beaches within the city limits. The contract calls for five six-hour cleanup days per week (weather permitting) and three days per week during turtle nesting season. City Manager Jim O’Connor sought the new contract based upon the existing contractor, Faith Construction Corporation headquartered in Deland who were retained last September, requesting that the city release them from their contract due to equipment compatibility issues with the sand texture of Vero’s beaches. The three-year contract with that firm called for a total expenditure of $95,958 over the length of the agreement.

The concept of paid vehicle parking at various city beaches was placed on the March agenda by the mayor based upon a proposal presented as a potential revenue source by the city recreation department. The issue has received little, if any, conspicuous support from the citizenry. One online petition received 1,758 signatures opposing any proposed parking fee. Based upon the council’s disposition of the issue, the online petition at “www.change.org” has stopped collecting signatures.

“It’s a political deadbeat,” claimed Council member Craig Fletcher.