Parks and recreation combo close to vote

CITY HALL. Combining the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation is a step closer to reality after a City Council committee yesterday approved a referendum on the November ballot asking voters to decide.

The full City Council must still approve the referendum before summer recess begins next week.

A long struggle to get the ballot question before voters ” required because the creation of a new Department of Parks and Recreation means a Charter change ” appears to be coming to an end after six years.

In that time, Council people Darrell Clarke and Blondell Reynolds Brown have continued to push for the combination of the two bureaucracies to help streamline funding and maintenance among other things.

œWe will have a more efficient and transparent system, Deputy Mayor Donald Schwarz, who oversees the two departments, said in support of the idea yesterday.

The only opposition at the Committee hearing came from two current park commissioners.

œWe must remember the history of Fairmount Park Commission created in 1857 right after the Civil War to keep Fairmount Park away from popular political whims, Judge Alex Bonavitacola said.