Local News
Town’s blank canvas
Transition committee debates needs for parks board
The future of the Zionsville Parks and Recreation Board continues to hang in the balance.
At its meeting Wednesday, June 24, the Reorganization Transition Committee discussed how necessary the parks board, in its current form, will be to the town.
The debate centered around parks subcommittee members Art Harris, of the town council, and Ralph Stacy, of the Eagle Township board. Since March, Harris has sought a change in parks department decision-making. He’s suggested changing the parks board to an advisory board, and even scrapping the body altogether.
Stacy points to the Plan of Government Reorganization passed by voters in last November’s election. The plan calls for the parks board to continue oversight of parks and recreation development in Zionsville, but it also recommends the transition committee diversify the makeup of the board to include representatives from Eagle and Union townships.
“It’s pretty clear to me, and our electorate, that they want to continue to have a parks board,” Stacy said.
But Harris takes a different interpretation of the reorganization plan, which is based on Indiana Code 36-1.5 — The Government Modernization Act of 2006. The act seeks to streamline local government wherever a governing body finds it necessary, giving the transition committee a blank sheet with which to work. As the committee has worked through its task of bridging the current Zionsville to its new form in 2010, it’s consistently found that previous state statutes hold little bearing regarding the Government Modernization Act.
“It says the transition committee can create anything we want,” Harris said. He continued that the point of reorganization is to take a closer look at how Zionsville governance can become more efficient.
The parks board is comprised of members appointed by the town council, including one ex-officio member from Zionsville schools. Harris would like to see the parks oversight put in the hands of the council, a group of elected officials. At the very least, he wants to model Zionsville’s parks board after Fishers. The Hamilton County town has a parks advisory board with no power to vote on parks department matters, but makes recommendations to the city council.
As Stacy put it Wednesday, the discussion is at a “stalemate.” However, the parks subcommittee will have to make a decision by the end of the month as the town council finalizes its 2010 budget in late July.
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