CHIMACUM — All Jefferson County families should have the opportunity to fully participate in county recreation programs, regardless of income, says a new policy approved by county commissioners this week.
The policy change comes at the insistence of county Commissioner Phil Johnson, D-Port Townsend, who was joined by fellow Commissioners David Sullivan, D-Cape George, and Pat Rodgers, R-Brinnon, in the policy’s approval.
Johnson said he feared that proposed subsidy cuts would price modest- to low-income families out of county recreation programs.
The commissioners’ action supersedes the former all-Republican county commissioners budget policy that recreation programs shift to fee-based revenues over a five-year period.
The old policy called for reducing general fund subsidies by 20 percent, starting this year, and 20 percent annually through 2009.
“I don’t believe recreation will survive under that policy,” Johnson said to his fellow commissioners.
$45 to play soccer
Johnson said, for example, that it now costs $45 a year per child to play soccer under the county recreation program.
Under the old policy, he said, “In order to make it work you would have to raise it to $100 to $110. . . . At some point, it’s going to get very expensive to play soccer.”
And that will hit modest- or low-income families the hardest, Johnson said.
More than 250 county Parks and Recreation Department programs serve more than 5,000 youths and adults, according to Matt Tyler, who has been the county’s assistant recreation manager for a year.