The following article is copyrighted by The Olathe News and displayed here with permission. The author is Steve Vockrodt .

Soccer tax would build Overland Park recreation center

Paying $75 million seems like plenty of money for two dozen soccer fields to some Johnson County taxpayers. That’s because not all of that money is going to soccer fields.

Part of it would build, among other things, an $8 million community center in Overland Park.

The $75 million referendum — $118 million during 20 years with the interest added — is a countywide ballot question. That means county taxpayers would pay for a community center on the soccer complex’s site in Overland Park near 167th Street and U.S. Highway 69, if voters approve the question Nov. 7.

The news that Overland Park could land a community center on the county’s dime comes months after the Olathe City Council made its own community and recreation center its top priority on its list of capital improvement projects for the next five years.

Olathe’s recreation center, which could cost as much as $14 million, is the answer to the city’s lack of public indoor recreation facilities. The possibility of Overland Park getting a community center — one that would include recreation facilities — rolled up in the soccer complex package isn’t likely to affect whether Olathe builds its recreation center.

Olathe residents probably wouldn’t travel to Overland Park to use the facility.

“If theirs were to occur, there still would be a need for centers in Olathe,” said Steve Baysinger, director of Olathe’s parks and recreation department.

Olathe voters still would need to pay for Overland Park’s community center, along with the rest of the 140-acre soccer project. The rest of Johnson County won’t be so generous with Olathe’s facility, which will built with a citywide eighth-cent sales tax that got passed in 1999.

That means every penny that goes toward Olathe’s center will come from within Olathe. The Johnson County Park and Recreation District, which has been advocating the soccer complex, said that a county community center has been in the works for some time, and that the soccer complex was an opportunity to roll the center into a bigger project.

There will be two or three more similar community centers in Johnson County by 2020, according to park officials. One of those is supposed be located in or around Olathe, said Randy Knight, park community relations manager. But that community center in Olathe isn’t likely to happen soon.

Parks departments in the Olathe and the county have discussed the project, but there’s been little or no progress beyond that.

“Basically, the funding is not in place for them to do that,” Baysinger said.

If and when a county community center lands in Olathe, it’s not clear what it would consist of. It’s only slightly more clear what the community center in Overland Park would look like. It could include offices and meeting rooms, a child care facility, some recreation areas, a gymnasium and other facilities to accommodate various parks and recreation services.

“It’s not unlike other community centers throughout the county,” Knight said.

But the uncertainty of the scope of the community center is part of what troubles Olathe Mayor Michael Copeland about the soccer proposal. When asked whether an Overland Park community center would affect Olathe’s proposed recreation center, Copeland said he couldn’t give a clear answer.

“The lack of information makes it difficult for me to answer your question,” Copeland said.

“I am concerned with how the plan has been developed, how the public is being informed about it,” Copeland said.

Another part of the problem, he said, is the people who govern the county’s park district don’t answer directly to voters and taxpayers. Those who serve on the seven-member park and recreation committee are each appointed by a separate Johnson County commissioner. Kansas law allows the Johnson County park and recreation board to put bond and tax proposals on voting ballots, which isn’t typical for most of the dozens of appointed boards in the county.

“Where’s the public accountability?” Copeland said. “Where are the public officials overseeing this plan?”