dougherty Archive

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Kiwanis gets update on Recreation and Parks

– March 21, 2011Posted in: Inside Albany, Lifestyle, Uncategorized

Kristin Caso gives highlights of her job as marketing and events planner with the Albany Recreation & Parks Department.

Even before it was put in charge of Albany’s civic center and municipal auditorium, the city’s Recreation & Parks Department (ARPD) held a multitude of responsibilities for oversight of public-use facilities and programs for all ages in the community.

The department’s Kristin Caso, marketing and special events planner, and Robyn Fink, therapeutics/aquatics events coordinator, outlined for members of the Kiwanis Club of Dougherty County on February 7 what Recreation & Parks’ mission entails.

Recreation & Parks is one of the city’s largest departments, Caso said, with 60 fulltime employees and seven coaches. It oversees seven  community centers/gyms; a fitness and wellness center; two cemeteries; the Flint River Municipal Golf Course; the 2.4-mile Riverfront Greenway Trail, Ray Charles Plaza, Central Square, and Broad Street medians; more than 50 parks/facilities across the city; athletic programs including softball, basketball, and football/cheer-leading; and a pool and spray park.

ARPD also sponsors a summer food-service program that serves some 40,000-50,000 meals to hungry youngsters each year.

As events planner, Caso is in charge of projects such as Family Day, which began two years ago as a one-time undertaking but got such an overwhelming initial response – more than 400 people turned out – that it is now an annual event. Family Day is a partnership between ARPD and the Albany Museum of Art that received the 2010 Dorothy Mullins Arts & Humanities Award from the Georgia Recreation and Park Association (GRPA).

Another ARPD happening is the “Easter Eggstravaganza” held for kids each year in Tift Park. The festivities include arts and crafts, games (potato sack race, relays, etc.) an Easter egg hunt, and a special appearance by the Easter Bunny.

A key part of the success of these events, according to Caso, has been the participation of volunteers from the Southwest Georgia Home School Key Club. Their efforts resulted in the Key Club’s being named the GRPA Third District Volunteer of the Year Award for 2010.

ARPD does multiple fireworks displays. Caso said a crew composed entirely of city employees handles these colorful celebrations on July 4, Christmas, and New Year’s.

Under her purview, Fink explained, are the aquatic activities at the Carver Pool & Spray Park. These include water aerobics, swimming lessons, adult swim, the Junior Lifeguard Program, three open swims per day, and themed Family Day Sundays.

Fink also coordinates therapeutic recreation activities, which cover Special Olympics for athletes with intellectual disabilities. The department recently fielded a championship basketball team. Other  SO activities include volleyball, bocce, flag football, tennis, and bowling.

In addition, Fink said, adaptive sports are available for physically- and visually-disabled adults age 21 and up. These athletes can choose from Zumba, Wii sports, Ten-Pin Rollers, Out-of-Sight Fitness, board games, and Beep Baseball.

ARPD has an affiliation with Atlanta-based Blazesports America. BlazeSports America provides sports training, competitions, summer camps, and other sports and recreational opportunities for youth and adults who use wheelchairs, have a visual impairment, have an amputation, or who have a neurological disability such as cerebral palsy or spina bifida. Participant’s ages range, depending on the program, from six years through adulthood.

From the information provided by Caso and Fink, it’s easy to see that Albany Recreation & Parks is, to adapt a well-known phrase, “park and parcel” of life in “the Good-Life City.”

Following their presentations, Kristin Caso (left) and Robyn Fink answer questions from DoCo Kiwanians about their city department’s facilities and programs.

 

 

Tags: Albany Recreation and Parks, ARPD, dougherty, Events, kiwanis
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Our Perspective: Dougherty County Taxpayers group well-grounded

– August 25, 2009Posted in: Outlook

There’s a lot to be said about an organization that sticks with its mission. And there’s a lot to be said about an organization that gets better with age.

To the Dougherty County Taxpayers Association, whose mission is to educate and engage the citizenry while providing oversight and pursuing local government reform, we say this: You’ve come a long way, baby!

The association publicly surfaced when its small core of organizers read a newspaper account in 2006 of Albany City Manager Alfred Lott’s claim that, to balance the budget, property taxes had to be raised. The association responded by pointing out deficiencies in Lott’s budget; informing the shortsighted city manager about his healthy rainy-day fund (which had been accumulated through over-taxation); and exposing Lott’s failure to comply with the law requiring tax increases to be advertised.

The association won its first battle: The tax-raising financing plan was overwhelmingly rebuffed by the Albany City Commission. And this year, association volunteer Tim Coley spent thousands of dollars to successfully delay the postponement of the city leadership’s scheme to allow downtown manager/convicted felon Don Buie to administer a $6 million downtown revitalization program with no plan and no oversight.

The association has been defeated, too; most notably, the taxpayers failed to convince the courts to overturn Dougherty County’s incompetently administered property revaluations.

But with stick-to-it-ness, a strong core of volunteers and a city government gone amok, the association has a growing database of members, a modest bank account, and a ton of momentum entering this fall’s election. The endeavor is as comprehensive a “We the People” initiative as there’s been in Albany in more than a decade.

At its meeting last week, the association drafted a “Contract with the Citizens of Albany and Dougherty County”. It is the association’s – and our – hope that all elected officials and candidates will commit henceforth to pursue good government and, thus, will sign the contract. Here it is:

As an elected official of the citizens of Albany and Dougherty County Georgia, and in the interest of honest, transparent and responsible government due EVERY citizen, I hereby pledge to:

  1. Act in the collective best interests of our community and the public who elect me.
  2. Comply with the Constitution and all laws and legal regulations of the United States, the State of Georgia, and the City of Albany.
  3. Prudently spend the taxpayers’ money for worthy, non-wasteful projects and programs as if it were my own.
  4. Never grant nor accept special favors or privileges from peers or other officials in carrying out my duties as an elected official.
  5. Engage in no business with the government, either directly or indirectly, that benefits me financially or is otherwise inconsistent with the conscientious performance of my governmental duties.
  6. Never take advantage of inside, non-public information gained in furtherance of my duties as an elected official for the personal gain or profit of me, my friends or my family.
  7. Expose corruption wherever and whenever discovered.
  8. Assist the public with obtaining timely access to all records.
  9. To use my best efforts to decrease the tax burden for all citizens.

In the pursuit of these values, and my oath of office, I further pledge that I will always act: Proactively, Accountably, Transparently, Responsibly, Independently, Objectively and always Truthful.

Tags: alfred lott, don buie, dougherty, taxpayers
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Dougherty County Taxpayers group right on target

– August 19, 2009Posted in: Outlook

Last Thursday evening I attended a meeting of the Dougherty County Taxpayer’s Association. My friend, Dinorah Hall met me in the front of Merry Acres Conference Center in Albany.

“You had better get a seat while you can,” she told me. I looked in the room and there were more empty tables than there were people. I spoke to a few people and found a seat. As it grew closer to starting time, people kept coming in, and they kept coming in, and they kept coming in. By the time that the steering committee chairman, Richard Thomas, stepped up to the podium to start the meeting, every table was filled and there was standing room only.

There had to be more than 200 in attendance. Like the Freedom Line events in front of Sanford Bishop’s Offices in Thomasville that grew from a handful to several hundred, this group has also grown. It is a sign that every day citizens are telling the professional politicians that “We the People” set the course and direction for our lives and that the government is accountable to the people – not the other way around. This group is non partisan. (Note to my fellow GOP leaders – we had better pay attention to groups like the Tea Parties, Freedom Lines, and Taxpayer Associations. They formed because there has been a void in conservative leadership and they resent being presumed upon by any political party.)

Richard Thomas took a few minutes to remind the large group that there was a steering committee responsible for the growth and impact of this group. He thanked Hilliard Burt, Tim Coley, Kevin Hogencamp, Ethel Woodall, Dinorah Hall, B.J. Fletcher, Todd Hockman, Doug Miller, Clinton Miles, Jeremy Lynch, and Donnie and Lonnie Smith for investing hours of their time to make a difference.

If you have followed any of the news in Albany, you know that there have been serious questions about the management of funds for downtown development. Richard Thomas and other speakers repeatedly made the point that they were not opposed to downtown development. They are opposed to handing taxpayers’ funds to people who had not proven to be good stewards of the funds. Let me offer a personal observation. Agencies or individuals who mismanage often try to shift the focus away from their own accountability by accusing those who question them of being against a good cause. The truth is that the agency or individual who mismanages is the real culprit and the one really against the good cause.

The Dougherty County Taxpayers Association is not just holding a big gripe session. They are taking definitive action.

First, they are calling on the members of the City Commission to rescind the six million dollar bond issue. This is common sense. Get someone to show faithfulness in the small things before borrowing six million dollars and handing it to them. At this point, the track record of downtown development is on the side of the Dougherty County Taxpayers Association.

Second, they are actively recruiting candidates to run for city commission. At the sign-in table, there were maps of the city with the wards open for election this year highlighted on the maps. They had suggestion cards for names of people who would be good candidates for office. They are giving away brooms to sweep the city clean. If you are an incumbent city commissioner up for election this year, you would be wise to listen to them. They don’t want to fight with you, they just want you to look at the facts and represent them – not the status quo or government employees. These are solid citizens who care about their community. I would not want them recruiting someone to run against me.

Third, they drafted a contract with the citizens of Albany and Dougherty County for elected officials and candidates to sign. This is a great model for any group or party.

I think that they are right on target. Incumbent city commissioners should take the time to meet with some of their leaders and listen to their concerns. Check out their Website. www.notemoretax.net. They are worthy of your support. We moved from Albany a few years ago and now live in Cordele but I am making a financial investment in this group today. I encourage you to consider doing the same.
written by Don Cole.

Don Cole is 2nd Congressional Disrict chairman of the Georgia Republican Party’s

Tags: dougherty, taxpayers
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