Palmetto ready to make a deal with Manatee County for new Lincoln Park pool

During Monday’s special meeting, Palmetto officials backed away from their unwillingness to meet a Manatee County request to help pay for a new $4 million aquatics center at Lincoln Park.

In a 4-0 vote, in the absence of Vice Mayor Brian Williams, city commissioners agreed to offer the county $850,000 over a 15-year-period with Community Redevelopment Agency funds and give the county the four acres of land the new pool would occupy at the park. The county had asked the city to chip in $1 million over the next 10 years.

The deal now falls in the hands of the Manatee County Board of Commissioners, who pulled the pool discussion from Tuesday’s meeting and scheduled a May 1 workshop. The county delayed taking any action pending ongoing movement in the Florida Legislature that could potentially hit municipalities and CRAs hard.

Those actions out of Tallahassee could impact revenues, making local government nervous to plan for future major projects. Those bills include severely restricting the way CRAs spend money, as well as a bill that would increase homestead exemptions to $75,000.

That bill would reduce property tax revenues at a time when municipalities are finally starting to recover from the Great Recession. The Florida Senate version of the CRA bill essentially died last week in committee. Palmetto CRA Director Jeff Burton said the Florida House version has been amended so many times that it does not represent the threat it once did in the original version.

“It’s typical Tallahassee politics,” Burton said with Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant adding, “They are barking up the wrong tree.”

The homestead exemption expansion is being voted on in the House on Tuesday, and how that vote goes could impact the direction the city and county take on the pool. In the meantime, Palmetto is showing that it is willing to move forward. Earlier this month, the city commission showcased the divided nature of wanting to share costs with the county.

City Commissioner Harold Smith, who has supported the joint partnership, made the motion to include that the county must take ownership of the land the pool will occupy. Varnadore said otherwise, it was a “deal breaker” for her.

“I support the pool and paying something but do not want to own the land,” Varnadore said. “My concern continues to be that if we build the pool, down the road budgets get tight and the county could just decide to drop the lease, and it’s all on the city.”

The motion was supported with fellow Commissioner Tamara Cornwell adding that the city gets assurance from the county it will go all out with designing the aquatics center. Cornwell said if the county is considering making it a competitive pool that would accommodate high school swim teams, then the county should look at accommodating the dive teams that many schools have as part of their swimming programs.

Cornwell said there are no such facilities in the region that provide that, and Palmetto could become the site for regional and potentially state championships for swimming, diving and water polo.

This story was originally published April 24, 2017 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Palmetto ready to make a deal with Manatee County for new Lincoln Park pool."