PARK TAX HIKE: PROPOSAL WOULD INCREASE TAX FROM 11 TO 35 CENTS

CHAFFEE -- Park services in Chaffee will be cut if voters reject a park tax increase on Tuesday's ballot.

"Things have just deteriorated the last few years," said city Park Board President Robert Sullivan. "We've got to do something or start shutting some stuff down."

The park tax question is the only city proposition before voters Tuesday. It would raise the city's park tax from 11 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to 35 cents. A simple majority is required for passage.

Voters also will vote Tuesday in two city council races. Two of the four council members up for election are unchallenged.

Park Board member Gregg Ourth Jr. said the tax is definitely needed.

"The number of ball games that we're able to hold and all the state and regional tournaments we've had in the past are not going to be able to continue until we get some assistance," said Ourth.

"We just need to keep up with the pace we're at right now. It is very important ... that we get the increase."

The liaison between the park board and the city council, Ward 2 Councilman Ed Gauthier, has said the tax boost is needed to cover a $30,000 annual shortfall by the city parks that now is paid out of general revenue. Sullivan said the money is needed because of budget crunches "on everybody, the city."

Only one council member, Jerry Wolsey of Ward 1, has opposed the park tax increase. Wolsey said after the City Council voted to put the proposition on the April ballot that he didn't believe it was a good time to ask voters to approve a tax increase because of the nation's economic problems.

Wolsey is up for re-election Tuesday and faces a challenge from John Nordin Sr. A third candidate, E.N. "Cotton" Sadler, will be on the ballot, but was reported earlier this week to be moving to Ward 3. A vacancy would be declared if Sadler won Wolsey's seat and chose to remain living in Ward 3.

Approval of the park tax Tuesday would help with needed maintenance and repairs, Sullivan said, and allow some improvements.

"We want to put in a walking path, particularly for senior citizens," he said. The path would be at Frisco Park, and Sullivan said benches around the park's lake also would be installed.

The tax increase would provide more money to help buy new lights to replace those at Harmon Field, Gauthier has said. A group called the Country CBers has raised about $13,000 for the lights, which will cost at least $40,000, Sullivan said.

Due to poor lighting at the park now, he said, safety considerations could halt night baseball at the park unless voters approve the tax increase.

Also, concrete and lighting problems need to be corrected at the tennis courts at Harmon Field, he said. And work needs to be done on the lights at the basketball courts in front of the city's swimming pool, said Sullivan. One light pole, he said, already is unsafe.

Dugouts are needed at Frisco Park too, he said, as is work on all the fences and backstops at the ballparks.

"I mean, it's just little things all along. The city's getting to the point where it can't subsidize things. We just spent $1,600 on new pumps for the swimming pool," said Sullivan.