Germantown considers new facility fee

Germantown - The Germantown School Board has talks on the table of implementing a facility fee to the Germantown Parks and Recreation Department for the use of district buildings to run many of its programs.

School Board member Bruce Warnimont said the district's Building Committee has begun to entertain the idea of charging the Recreation Department a usage fee and asked the board if it was worth further discussion. Although the Recreation Department currently does not pay any fees, the department does place money into a fund that is set aside for special projects within the school district.

No changes have yet been made to the intergovernmental agreement. It is currently in the negotiation phase.

School Board member Tom Barney said that to some degree he feels the district should charge a fee to recoup utility costs, especially when Parks and Recreation are sometimes the only group using a district building at one time.

Sarah Larson and Diana Kline were the only two board members who did not share this sentiment, saying the current structure should be left as is and no fees should be charged.

Director of the Parks and Recreation Department Brett Altergott attended the initial Building Committee meeting. He said Tuesday morning there are still a lot of steps necessary to determine what type of agreement will work for both entities that serve the same members of the community.

"We are working to find the best resolution for both of us," he said, adding that nothing has been finalized and the two entities are ensuring they are on the same page with all decisions.

In addition to further discussing a new fee structure, Warnimont said the Building Committee is also talking about whether or not the Recreation Department should be allowed to use academic portions of district facilities. Currently, recreation programs are limited to school gymnasiums.

"Do we want to make various parts of the academic portions of the school available to the Parks and (Recreation) Department with the presumption that we are entrusting them to provide security monitoring?" he asked the board.

Members agreed this is worth further discussion at future Building Committee meetings.