CHAFFEE VOTERS TO DECIDE ON PARKS TAX INCREASE

CHAFFEE -- Chaffee voters will decide the level of funding for its park department in Tuesday's municipal election.

Voters are being asked to increase the property tax levy from 13 to 40 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. A majority vote is needed.

Chaffee voters defeated a proposed 12-cent increase for the parks department in April 1993 by seven votes, 173-166.

The proposed increase of 27 cents will cost a property owner with a $50,000 house an additional $25.65 per year. A property owner with a $100,000 commercial building will pay $86.40 more per year.

The present tax levy only provides about 25 percent of the $57,000 spent annually on the local parks and swimming pool. The city has been subsidizing the parks operation from the general revenue fund.

"We're only able to maintain what we have with the present budget," said park board president Bill Pfefferkorn, adding that it is time to improve the parks for the city's betterment.

Pfefferkorn said the city's general revenues have been getting tighter every year, but the city council has been good in providing the subsidy.

If the city continues its subsidy, then the proposed increase could be used for some capital improvements, he said.

The swimming pool needs to be modernized with a bigger deck area, the addition of an intermediate pool and remodeling of the toddler pool.

Pfefferkorn said other plans include a new fence, backstop and modernized dugouts for the main baseball diamond at Harmon Field.

Parks Director Delbert Horman said two small ballfields are being opened in Frisco Park this spring to alleviate some of the late-night games that children were having last year with crowded fields. Bleachers are needed at those new fields.

Horman said the pavilions in Frisco Park and at Harmon Field are used almost every weekend for some kind of gathering. Another pavilion is planned for the south end of Frisco Park. He is also working to make the pond in that area into a good fishing spot.

There were 330 players, ages 6 to 18, on 26 teams last summer in the city's youth league, Horman said, adding that participation in the summer sports programs has increased tremendously over the past few years.

Horman was hired full time as the parks director in the fall of 1993. One full-time worker and two part-time people help him with park maintenance during the summer. In addition, nine people are usually needed at the swimming pool every summer.

Pfefferkorn said Horman has worked hard over the past 18 months to improve the local parks.

"We're providing a lot of good, clean activities for the families here with our park," Pfefferkorn said, adding that the nine-member park board has plans to continue making improvements with the additional financing.