The McMinnville Parks and Recreation Committee voted Tuesday night to eliminate free facility rentals for non-profit organizations and governmental agencies.
Parks and Recreation Director Justin Scott said the department previously hosted five major events for free last year that resulted in a combined financial loss of nearly $13,000. Scott said the new policy implements a 25 percent discount from the standard non-commercial rate of $80 per hour to help the city recoup costs associated with labor and materials.
“But what this would do, would allow us to kind of recoup and regain some of the financial loss that we had with the setup, the breakdown, and just the shutdown of our facility,” Scott said. “Usually takes around four guys to set up. And then if we have, like again, taping, tarping, if we have to do booth marking, setting up the stage, all that goes into that time as well as when we have to break it back down, trash pickup, cleanup, sweep, mop, and set the gymnasium back up.”
Scott said the department must often shut down parts of the facility for several days to accommodate event preparation. Justin said while some events are simple, others like the local craft fair require staff to begin work on a Monday for a Wednesday move-in.
“It’s hard to kind of quantify what we’re losing as far as people coming in and wanting to use the facility because it depends on the time of the year,” Scott said. “If it’s cold outside, more people are coming inside. If it’s a day like today, they’re out on the track and they’re not using our facility.”
The committee also approved a second measure to eliminate the $25 security deposit for small room and pavilion rentals. Justin said the department has only had to withhold a deposit twice since 2021, and the administrative burden of processing the refunds outweighed the benefit of the small fee.
“In the whole scheme of things, $25, if we have a ceiling tile damage or a floor tile or they break a chair, the $25 really doesn’t cover that cost,” Scott said. “And what that means is if Steve walks in and wants to rent the room, instead of us going through this whole checklist of things and providing you with all the rules and asking for a $25 deposit which you’re going to get back, um, you just simply come in and rent the room and we’ll still give you some rules but you just walk out the door.”
One committee member said she was concerned that moving to an administrative approval process might leave officials “out of the loop” regarding community events. Scott said he would include information about upcoming nonprofit rentals in his weekly departmental reports to ensure the committee remains informed.