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2 COUNCIL MEMBERS DECRY ‘BABYSITTING

Y’s Summer Parks Program

Removed From City Budget

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

Council Member Dana Levinson, Fifth Ward, pleads with Council to keep funding the YMCA's summer Parks Program during tonight's budget workshop.  Behind her, from front, are Council member Joe Ficano, John Rafter and Russ Southard.   (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Council Member Dana Levinson, Fifth Ward, pleads with Council to keep funding the YMCA’s summer Parks Program during tonight’s budget workshop.  Behind her, from front, are Council member Joe Ficano, John Rafter and Russ Southard.   (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)

ONEONTA – The YMCA Parks Program is on the chopping block to help closed a $338,067 gap already reduced from $2 million in the $15.2 million budget target Common Council is seeking to keep taxes stable in 2017.

“We’re not a babysitting service,” said Council member Paul van der Sommen, First Ward.  “We can’t justify the cost.”

The Y’s Parks Program offered kids two sets of supervised activities; in the morning at Neahwa Park and afternoon at the Wilber Park pool, for $10 a week per child for city residents.  The city paid the Y $22,000 this year to run the eight-week program, but the Y found that it was unable to keep up with the cost of whole-day staffing, and cut the program back to just the morning.

“I was on the fence about this until they cut it down to just the morning,” said Council Member Michelle Osterhoudt, Fourth Ward.  “I’m no longer on the fence.”

But Dana Levinson, Fifth Ward, made a passionate plea to keep funding the program.  “I’m really struggling with this,” she said. “The families that use this are generally low-income,  They’re working families who might not be able to afford other activities in the city.”

“Why is it our responsibility to offer babysitting?” offered Council Member Melissa Nicosia, Second Ward.

“Why is it our responsibility to offer concerts to old people?” asked Mayor Gary Herzig, noting that the $5,000 allotted to the Summer Concert Series was also facing cuts.  “These are quality-of-life issues.  It’s what cities do.”

In the end, the majority of the Council agreed City Hall can’t afford to continue funding the program.  “We just can’t afford it,” said Council member David Rissberger, Third Ward.

The $9,000 item for the Oneonta Teen Center, also run by the YMCA, was spared the ax.  “I’d rather see the kids go there than onto the streets,” said Levinson.  “If it saves one kid, inspires them to be what they were meant to be, then it’s worth the cost.”

The amended budget will be laid before the Council at their meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 15, with a public hearing slated for Monday, Nov. 28.

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2 Comments

  1. Congratulations, City of Oneonta, for proving once again that you are spiraling downward. It is appropriate for towns to provide programs to help families who wish to live there. It is appealing to newcomers to see ‘community’. All I see is a dying town with empty stores and businesses geared to college students.

    Shame on you. You are doing nothing to attract new residents or keep the current ones.

    During the summer, Oneonta should be bustling with Cooperstown overflow and offering out of towners a wonderful experience of Upstate NY. Instead I watch people from out of state wonder aimlessly around a town with empty storefronts and closed businesses, because the sidewalks are rolled up early and practically no one is open on Sunday mornings, when brunch desires are high. You are all clearly not approaching your revitalization efforts from the level of tourists. You are not even approaching it from the level of new families/young families looking to set roots in the area.

  2. “Why are we responsible?” – shame on you. If you want people to come and live in Oneonta the community needs to be attractive and supportive of adults and children. YMCA should not be viewed as a “babysitting sevice” but a organization that supports the raising of kids into production time adults and the supporting of families in the oneonta community. If you can’t stand up for that then don’t expect people to stay, live and work here.

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