Wednesday, September 15, 1999
Citizens to get say on center
City survey to gather ideas
BY SARA J. BENNETT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FOREST PARK — Residents here have expressed interest in a community center. Now, the city wants to know whether they're willing to pay for it.
A marketing firm hired by the city will begin calling residents next week to ask a series of survey questions.
Among the queries: Where should the new center be? What facilities, services and activities should be included? And how should the center be paid for — through user fees, or higher taxes for everyone?
Results of the survey, which aims to gather respon ses from 400 households, should be available near the end of October, said Councilman Steve Miklavic, chair of the community center task force.
“For well over 10 years, every time we've conducted a survey of the residents, the No. 1 response to the question, "What would you like to see in the city?' is a recreation or a community center,” he said. “This time, we said, OK, we're not going to just pass it off, we're going to see how we can do this.”
Springdale's John Fox Marketing Consultants developed the $15,000 survey, which Mr. Miklavic estimates will take about 12 minutes to complete. The questions offer a glimpse of what a Forest Park community center could be like.
Three locations have been proposed: The intersections of Sharon and Waycross roads, Kemper and Winton roads, or Waycross Road and Hamilton Avenue.
The center could include a variety of facilities and programs, from swimming pools, tennis courts and sports leagues, to a day-care center, crafts room, and a theater for performing arts.
Once survey respondents have given a wish list for the community center, they'll move on to how to pay for it.
Estimates are for the center to cost $12 million to $15 million to build and $1 million a year to operate.
Two funding sources have been suggested. Each would create a different result in how the center would operate.
• Forest Park residents could pay for the entire project through increases in city income and/or property taxes. Councilman Mike Bonney, chair of the city's ways and means committee, estimates that would mean another $250 to $300 a year in taxes for the average resident.
Under this plan, Forest Park residents and employees could use the community center with minimal dues or additional charges.
• The city could team up with a yet-unnamed Greater Cincinnati health-care organization to build the center at no cost to Forest Park residents. The health-care organization would run the center, and Forest Park residents would pay an estimated $375 to $750 a year to use it. The center also could be open to people from outside Forest Park.
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