Commissioner Rob Jones said Friday he is considering a verbal recommendation from the recreation board that he not pay a $50,000 gym rental fee to the school board and cancel the county’s basketball season for this year.
Jones said Friday that nothing official has changed and the season had not been cancelled yet, but it is being considered. He said before commenting on what he would decide or when he would decide, he will await a written recommendation from the Recreation Board.
Jones said that he had met with the county Rec. board Thursday night and they indicated they didn’t want him pay the $50,000 which would mean no basketball facilities for this year. But Jones noted not all the Rec. board was in attendance and he wanted to wait until he had a signed written statement of their recommendation before reaching any official decision.
Roughly 400 kids participate in the county program that uses the gyms on school campuses. Sign ups have already been completed for this year, with players paying a $75 fee for the program.
This year the school board and sole commissioner Jones had agreed to a deal where the county would pay $50,000 to the schools for exclusive use of Jasper Elmentary’s old gym and use of two other gyms for the basketball program. The county would pay the rental fee on top of regular maintenance fees charged in year's past. Jasper Elementary has recently opened a new gym on their campus.
Practices for basketball were scheduled to start in mid November.
See next week's Progress for update.
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