Dear Editor:
In recent weeks, several Groveland Township residents have written letters to The Citizen critical of the nonresident fee charged by Brandon Township Parks & Recreation that now applies to Groveland residents for program registrations.
Let me assure you that the Brandon Township Board of Trustees did not arrive at this decision arbitrarily.
Created by the Charter Township of Brandon Board of Trustees in 2001, Brandon Township Recreation circumvented a potential recreational void in our community following the dissolution of the Brandon-Groveland-Ortonville Recreation Commission. In an effort to keep program registration fees affordable for residents, Brandon Township covers all administrative funding for the department. Program registration fees do not pay for salaries, benefits, overhead expenses, or office supplies. These fees are evaluated annually and adjusted individually based on actual and predicted expenses for each program. The administrative costs of running a recreation department come from tax dollars paid exclusively by Brandon Township residents. Nonresident fees are necessary to ensure that Brandon taxpayers are not subsidizing participation costs for nonresident participants.
During the budget process for 2008, the Brandon Township Board of Trustees reviewed several critical factors concerning recreation department funding including percentage of program participants from Brandon Township; percentage of program participants from Groveland Township; percentage of program participants from other areas; nonresident fee revenue; and recreation contributions from other municipalities
In previous years, Groveland Township contributed $15,000 annually to offset the administrative cost of the recreation department. This past November, the Brandon Township Board of Trustees requested an increase in Groveland’s annual payment proportionate to Groveland’s program participation numbers.
When Brandon Township began administering recreational programming for the community, Groveland Township contributed an annual sum of $15, 000 to subsidize Groveland Township resident participation. Program participation numbers continued to increase and it soon became necessary to hire a full-time recreation programmer. In 2007, Groveland Township’s $15,000 annual contribution (combined with a $3 interim Groveland program surcharge netting $357) covered only 7 percent of the $210,000 paid by Brandon Township for recreational administrative expenses, even though Groveland residents comprised 20 percent of program registrations processed in 2007. Special events, festivals and trips organized by Brandon Township Parks & Recreation are not counted in program registration counts.
The administrative expense figure of $210,000 reflects salaries, health care and longevity benefits for three full-time recreation employees as well as for the purchase of the department’s computers, printers, software, risograph ink, and other office supplies. In fact, the $210,000 figure used to compute Groveland’s proportional share of the administrative cost to operate the recreation department does not reflect the purchase of assets (desks, filing cabinets, etc.), nor does it reflect a host of other recreation expenses absorbed by Brandon Township taxpayers: depreciation, office space, heat, A/C, telephone, postage, website hosting, copy machine usage, etc.
In November of 2007, the Brandon Township Board of Trustees presented the Groveland Township Board of Trust-