Council: Fix the merry-go-round

In my seven and one-half years in Mammoth I have never seen anything except development get ahead in our town government game. But lately that has changed. As we all know, in the current economy, development has stagnated and is not the cash cow it once was. While that hasn’t been good for our government’s pocketbook, it’s not a bad thing overall. It just opens up the stage for something else to step into the limelight and take its turn in the driver’s seat.

The community has made it clear that this new star is recreation, but is the Town Council, the body that is making our policies and directing our town, listening?

At the Town’s Recreation Commission meeting this week, I heard the same discussions regarding Measure R that I have been hearing for the past six months. How to deal with supplanting and maintenance issues when it comes to this pot of money that in all reality doesn’t go very far. Commissioners discussed letting Council know that a heftier maintenance fund should be put in place for recreation amenities. Projects that are not new should be maintained by the Town’s General Fund, not Measure R funds. These existing projects are just as important as new projects to the overall recreation picture.

The conversation confused me. Aren’t these the items that the Commission discussed with the Council when the two bodies met during a study session on Oct. 20, 2010? I re-read my story from that session, and indeed, these items were discussed in relation to three Measure R fall applications: replacing equipment at Whitmore pool, replacing noncompliant playground equipment at Mammoth Creek Park and refurbishing the tennis courts at the Community Center.

“The Town’s obligation is to allocate General funds to things that are important to us,” Wood was quoted as saying during that workshop. “Until now we haven’t heard about stuff like the pool pump loudly or strongly enough,” which is why he felt it had not been a priority.

The Recreation Commissioners claimed on Tuesday that it was their responsibility to continue to reiterate to Council how important recreation amenities, as well as the maintenance of those amenities, are to our town, but when does Council become responsible for taking action on what it is hearing? When is something considered to be a request that is made loudly and strongly enough to catch that body’s attention? Should the Commission have to hold multiple workshops with the Council before anything gets done?

We have a Town Council that says it is pro recreation, but it has yet to prove it.

Those three projects that the Council agreed four months ago should be funded by the General Fund have yet to be resolved. To this day they are still in limbo, even the out-of-compliance playground equipment that puts the Town at risk for yet another potential lawsuit. (According to Recreation Manager Stuart Brown, the equipment should be part of the Council budget visioning workshop on Feb. 23 as an emergency item, but the equipment was already deemed an emergency four months ago.)

I look at it this way. During all of the years where development was on its high horse, I never once read about any particular development in the mainstream media and I certainly never read anything about a development where it repeatedly mentioned Mammoth Lakes.

Whereas the athletes who train in Mammoth are making headlines all over the world and Mammoth Lakes is always mentioned as the place where they live and train. It won’t be long before more people want to come here for the recreational amenities. Will we be ready, or will we still be trying to convince Council to bump up the current pittance of a maintenance fund?

I understand that the Town is undergoing processes such as RecStrats that will help prioritize which recreation amenities should be worked on first and how to proceed until everything is completed. A great start and hopefully we will see the fruits of the Town’s labors in the next few months, but if the money isn’t set aside then even the priorities will sit idle.