Habersham County Commission Chairman Bruce Palmer held his final town hall meeting of 2022 Tuesday night at the Ruby Fulbright Aquatic Center. The purpose was to educate the public about the county’s Parks and Recreation Department. Given that the town hall meeting was held during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, only about 15 citizens attended.

Chairman Palmer’s presentation started by demonstrating the need to maintain the recreation department facilities. He gave numerous examples of disrepair and maintenance needs. He stated that some of the restrooms need to be renovated. Many of the exterior facilities need to be pressure washed and repainted.

Palmer said the disrepair and maintenance needs have been an ongoing issue and hadn’t been addressed over the years due to budgetary constraints, lack of staff, and in some cases, both.

Palmer also addressed the recent controversial reorganization of the county Parks and Recreation Department.

At a special called meeting on December 1, Palmer and his fellow county commissioners approved a reorganization plan for the department that included opening up seven new positions. Those positions include an aquatics manager, an athletics manager, a special events manager, and four part-time park supervisors.

New staff positions and their responsibilities

In his presentation on December 27, Chairman Palmer addressed some of the job duties of the new positions. He says the aquatics manager would have the responsibility of training new lifeguards for the Ruby C. Fulbright Aquatic Center. The aquatic center currently has a shortage of lifeguards. When there are no lifeguards on duty, the pool is closed to the public.

The athletics manager would take over the baseball and softball programs this spring and bring that back in-house, so it’s controlled by the county and not contracted to outside entities.

The special events manager would be responsible for marketing the recreation department facilities, primarily the fairgrounds, for larger events. One such example would be a car show that Palmer said would help generate tourism.

The park supervisors would be responsible for nightly cleaning, making sure the trash has been taken out, making sure that soap and toilet tissue are replenished, making sure lights are turned on and off at appropriate times, and being present at other facilities such as a school gymnasium when utilized for practices.

The managers would also be responsible for communicating the maintenance needs of the facilities to the Habersham County Parks and Recreation Director, Brooke Whitmire. In some cases, the new positions would assist in doing the maintenance and repair work themselves, Palmer added.

Whitmire, who was also in attendance at Tuesday’s town hall, praised the county’s Public Facilities Department. She said the department does all it can to assist with maintenance needs at the rec department, but it is responsible for all the facilities in the county and can’t devote all of its time to addressing maintenance issues at the rec department.

Questions but few answers

Even though only a small group of citizens attended the meeting, some had questions and concerns.

Jon Wilbanks of Clarkesville stated that “all of this sounds great and wonderful but is this something that can be revisited in a year” because “someone is not pulling their weight. There is no reason for some of that (disrepair).”

Wilbanks expressed his concerns – and those of other county residents – about how the county is going to pay for these new positions.

“You’re saying we got to do this, but [not] here’s how we’re going to offset the cost instead of throwing it back to the taxpayers,” Wilbanks said, “What’s the actual plan?”

Chairman Palmer stated that they would be evaluated as they come in. He also stated that he understands that everyone fusses about their property taxes and explained that the county doesn’t get the LOST tax and doesn’t get the Alcohol Tax; those go to the Board of Education. He said, “at some point, we have to decide, ok, are we going to fund stuff or are we not going to fund stuff?”

Wilbanks added that taxpayers are seeing their taxes going up but not seeing the changes that the county says will take place. He states that it falls back to the county, and “they have to have better communication skills.”

Wilbanks explained that it was not just him but several people who had reached out to the recreation department with calls, texts, and emails and said no one had returned those.

In a recent letter to the editor, Clarkesville resident Julia Braswell told of recent problems she says she’s had communicating with Whitmire and Habersham County Manager Alicia Vaughn about the parks and rec department. Braswell accused Vaughn of “yelling at her” when she called to discuss the hiring of the seven new positions. Vaughn has not publicly responded to Braswell’s letter.

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Braswell was not at Tuesday’s meeting, but Wilbanks said he’s heard “from so many people that they are not being followed up [with]. That’s the first thing that’s got to change is communication.”

Chairman Palmer acknowledged that communication is key. He ended the meeting with a question-and-answer session.

Following the meeting, Wilbanks told Now Habersham he’s hearing complaints about the lack of communication from within parks and rec from “a lot of people who are not typically complainers.”

“These are people that are generally involved in youth programs and are not hearing back from upper management,” he said.

In addition to his concerns about communication, Wilbanks said he’s concerned about the burden on taxpayers and called for accountability.

“What I do want to know is how are we going to follow up in a year and prove that this is working and reevaluate it and if these new hired hands are not fulfilling what they need to fulfill, what do we do at that point?” he asked.

To view the town hall meeting in its entirety, click here.