County’s draft budget to include parks and rec funds for Dobbins Heights, Hoffman

DOBBINS HEIGHTS — The county government’s upcoming draft budget will allot funds for parks and recreation to Dobbins Heights and Hoffman for the first time since 2017, County Manager Bryan Land confirmed.

The issue came up at the private quarterly meeting last month between select members of the Board of Commissioners and municipal officials. Dobbins Heights received $5,670 for parks and recreation in April 2017, according to Town Clerk Regina Hamilton, and Land said the last amount they gave to Hoffman for this purpose was $6,750.

Land said these are the same amounts he plans to add to the county budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year draft budget.

“In speaking in general terms, the Commissioners present [at the February county-municipal meeting] were in agreement with the group that they would be in favor of resuming the contributions for Parks and Recreation for Dobbins Heights and Hoffman,” Land said. “At this point, we are just in the beginning phase of developing the 2023 Budget. It is my intention, based on those discussions, to include these amounts in my proposed budget to the Board of Commissioners, who will have the final say.”

When the county discontinued the funds initially, their reasoning was that there wasn’t enough usage of these towns’ parks and recreation offerings, and Land specifically mentioned the lack of an organized recreational sports league in justifying not allocating the funds, according to Dobbins Heights Mayor Pro Tem Tyre Holloway.

Holloway said that he told Land in the February meeting that Dobbins Heights’s budget doesn’t have room to add the staff required to run a rec league, which he explained would require a Town Council member to oversee and the hiring of a parks and rec director.

“We don’t have that manpower … That was a statement that was agreed upon in the room,” Holloway said.

Asked in an email if the frequency of usage was a factor in stopping, and now potentially resuming, the funds, Land did not specify.

“Other than casual observations of the Dobbins Heights Community Center and Pool and Hoffman’s Park I don’t have direct knowledge of what these towns are offering currently or what their future plans may entail,” Land said.

Both Holloway and Hoffman Mayor Tommy Hart said that these funds are greatly needed to maintain their recreation facilities. They added that these facilities are used in large part by county residents in addition to city residents who pay for them.

“We operate a pool every year that benefits not just our kids in Dobbins Heights, we service a lot of kids from Rockingham, Ellerbe, from all over the county and surrounding counties. That is a service that we provide for not just our kids and as well as our basketball court,” Holloway said. “The whole county utilizes our park so for us to not receive county funds is egregious.”

Hart said that if the Board of Commissioners were to approve the funds in the county’s budget for next year, the money could go towards the elderly and youth summer programs that were discontinued in 2020 due to the pandemic, as well as maintaining their recreation complex.

“We certainly can use the parks and rec money, Lord knows it will be a huge help,” Hart said.