Dana Hall, director of the Sampson County Parks and Recreation, is adamant that despite statements made at a county budget workshop earlier this week, the department is not projected to go over its budget.
While going over the department’s expenses from the previous year, County Commissioner Chip Crumpler was made aware that, according to recorded expenses paid, the department would go roughly $100,000 over budget.
“Based on what your actuals are, it looks like you may run over budget this year,” Crumpler told the director during a budget work session Monday afternoon. “We budgeted $865,000, and based on what’s been spent so far, you’re gonna be at $968,000, which is $100,000 over what’s been budgeted.”
This statement threw Hall, who responded, saying the department was not over budget. According to Hall in a phone interview later this week, she was able to meet with Crumpler to see where he was getting the numbers and set the record straight.
“It looks like he was looking at some capital outlay funding that we got from a grant for an inclusive playground,” said Hall. “He thought that was where we had kind of overspent some money, but we actually got (those funds) from a grant. I think it was just a little misunderstanding. We got it cleared up now, but it was just something that he had seen and so when he asked me about it, it threw me a little off guard.”
Capital outlay funds are used by departments to buy or build new assets such as land, machinery, or equipment. The grant Hall is referring to was for $250,000 received by the department last May on behalf of Trillium Health Resources. The grant was used to help fund the new inclusive playground near Clement Ballpark, which opened in December. The park was designed for children with Autism and other special needs, providing them a safe place to play.
In addition, Hall stated that it was more likely that the department would go under budget as a result of part-time workers. While Hall stated that the department had no vacancies, the hours that part-time workers are on the clock may vary. Because of this, the money set aside to pay them may not be fully used.
“Just to give you an idea, for part-time positions, we usually recruit teenagers to work,” said Hall. “Well, right now, there’s not a lot of teenagers who need jobs. I keep about 25-30 on staff. When they turned in their timesheets for this past month, I had some that worked five hours, and I had some that worked 40 hours. I even had some that worked no hours. That’s what their availability was. It’s very inconsistent.”
Additionally, Hall said that recruiting new teenagers for the job can be difficult due to college and high school age kids participating in more extracurricular activities at their schools.
“It’s very hard for them to work consistently,” said Hall. “So, we try to keep a ton of them on staff just be able to plug them in when we can.”
Hall stated that unless the commissioners decide to give the department’s employees a cost of living adjustment or COLA, the budget should remain the same. A COLA ia an increase in compensation intended to help employees maintain the value of their pay against inflation.
Despite lean times and obstacles, Hall and the Parks and Recreation Department are trying to stay afloat to keep programs available for the children of Sampson.
Each year the department has roughly 1800 participants for various programs and events. For attendance during ball games, last year the total attendance for the season was around 35,000 people.
More departmental updates will be made at the next county budget workshop scheduled for Monday at 4 p.m.