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Page 2 of 2 <br /> <br />In 2018, the City offered new active adult activities as part of the recreation program offerings. <br />New programs take time to grow and become established within our community and it should be <br />noted that the city fell slightly short of the goal of covering all of its direct programming costs. <br />The city ended up at 93.1% for 2018, or $8,076 short of its goal. If it is determined that a <br />program is not meeting costs after its first year, staff reevaluates the need for the program and <br />would discuss not offering the class in the future, allowing an additional year for the class to <br />develop, or determining if the community value exceeds the revenue deficit for the class. <br /> <br />New and existing recreation programs are evaluated each year to support the park and recreation <br />mission of serving the people of Arden Hills by providing a comprehensive, well maintained <br />system of parks, trails, facilities and open spaces, and a balanced, well organized program of <br />affordable recreational activities. <br /> <br />City staff also requested information from eight cities regarding their recreation programs, <br />including the cities of Columbia Heights, Forest Lake, Fridley, Lino Lakes, Little Canada, <br />Mendota Heights, Spring Lake Park and Willmar. The method used to account for recreation <br />programs differs from city to city. In order to achieve the accurate comparison to other cities, we <br />reviewed the responses received and the financial information available on their website. <br />Attachment B is a summary of the comparable data with year-end totals for 2018, based on <br />three of the cities that responded to staff’s request for information and provided data could be <br />verified with available budget information. Recreational activities that are provided through <br />cities are typically subsidized to some extent, usually by property taxes. Staff can pursue <br />additional comparison data if the City Council wishes to collect more data. <br /> <br />Attachment C provides a summary of specific programs offered throughout 2018 by the City of <br />Arden Hills. Participation counts, expenses and revenues are provided on the attachment. <br /> <br />Staff is seeking direction from the council regarding the current goal of revenue covering direct <br />program costs and property taxes covering the overhead costs (administration personnel). If the <br />council is seeking a goal different than this, staff can come back with alternatives to meet that <br />goal. <br /> <br />Budget Impact <br />N/A <br /> <br />Attachments <br />A. 2007 – 2018 revenues and expenditures for Recreation Programs <br />B. Comparison to other cities for 2018 <br />C. Detailed breakdown of Arden Hills for 2018