Jackson Park Rental Fees
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MEMORANDUM
November 8, 2004
TO:
The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM:
Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Rental of Jackson Park
In response to a request from Sister Jeanette McCarthy, the City Council asked for a
review of the City practice of rental fees for neighborhood parks. leisure Services
Manager Gil Spence has provided a history of the rental fee charges in neighborhood
parks.
leisure Services Manager Gil Spence recommends that no fee be charged to events
that use neighborhood and mini parks (except Washington Park) and are open to the
public. Events not open to the public would be subject to the usage fee.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
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Michael C. Van Milligen -
MCVM/jh
Attachment
cc: Sister Jeanette McCarthy, PBVM
Barry Lindahl, Corporation Counsel
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Gil Spence, leisure Services Manager
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MEMORANDUM
November 5, 2004
TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM, GU D. SP'""', L.;",. SeN;"" M""¥
SUBJECT: Rental of Jackson Park
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide a response to the letter Sister Jeanette
McCarthy, PBVM wrote to the City Council asking that the decision to charge $100 rent
per event in neighborhood parks be reassessed.
BACKGROUND
Sister Jeanette has used Jackson Park for a number of years and has never been
assessed a park rental fee or a fee for the extra picnic tables she requested be added to
the park for her use. The last few years we have seen a big increase in the number of
groups wanting to reserve Jackson Park.
The following is a list of reservations in 2004 for Jackson Park:
Historic Ministry 3 dates
NAACP 1 date
Faith Temple 1 date *
Word of God 6 dates *
St. Mary's/St. Pat's 1 date
Neighborhood Association Concerts ~ dates
TOTAL 15 dates
* groups that paid the park rental fee
To remain consistent with charging the fee for rental of Washington Park and the groups
that were charged at Jackson, we informed all groups that in 2005 there would be a fee
for reserving Jackson Park, except for the Downtown Neighborhood Association's use
of the park. We also informed them we would begin charging the $10.00 per table fee
for extra picnic tables delivered to the park for their usage.
Jackson Park, page two
In 2004 we delivered 230 tables to fourteen different events. This service continues to
grow and is very time consuming and may need to be eliminated so staff can focus on
maintenance duties.
DISCUSSION
Staff met to reassess the fee for use of Jackson Park with discussion centering on the
following points:
. Jackson, Washington and Comiskey parks are the only parks where the entire parks
have been reserved. The times Eagle Point Park has been reserved, the group
reserved all the pavilions in the park as the fee, and the entrance fee was assessed.
We discussed how Washington is more of a community park than either a
neighborhood (Comiskey) or mini (Jackson) park, therefore should be thought of
differently.
Events open to the public should be viewed differently than those that are not.
Consideration should be given to events held in neighborhood and mini parks that
focus on participation by the neighborhood residents.
With these thoughts in mind, we recommend that no fee be charged to events that use
neighborhood and mini parks (except Washington) and are open to the public. Events
not open to the public would be subject to the usage fee.
I believe Sister Jeanette's event is open to the public so there will be no fee charged.
Please call if you have any questions.
GDS:et