The city of St. Cloud’s adjusted fee schedule for its parks and recreation programs and facilities use went into effect Monday.

The changes were to make up for the county no longer subsiding non-city resident fees. Staff also said they tried to make fees across the board more equitable, at the St. Cloud City Council’s direction. The fees were discussed during the council’s workshop Feb. 18 and presented for approval Feb. 25.

Before the council members cast their anonymous vote in favor of the changes last week, Councilman Jarom Fertic questioned the necessity of changing the fees at all.

“The problem is, every time we increase this, it’s getting passed on to parents,” Fertic said. “I don’t know what we’re trying to do. Are we trying to make money off all the services for the kids?”

City Manager Tom Hurt said he didn’t think it was possible for a parks and recreation department to even break even, budget-wise.

“We did cut the budget quite a bit out of parks and recreation, so we are trying to at least keep parks and rec programs afloat, for lack of a better word,” he said. “With these fees, we’ve tried to adjust them. Some went down, some came up a slight bit.”

Part of the reason for adjusting the fees was because it was said those using the St. Cloud Aquatic Center weren’t paying their fair share, Hurt said.

The different swim teams that use the city’s pool now will pay $40 per person per three-month season. The teams would meet to come up with a new schedule for pool usage, staff said.

The new schedule also assigns a higher fee for some programs and facility rentals to those who live outside Osceola County. Originally, the fees were to be adjusted with lower fees for those who just live within city limits, after the county officials said they no longer could afford to offset the higher costs for county residents.

However, St. Cloud’s portion of the countywide utility tax fund now will be used to offset those costs. The city’s share, which amounts to about $386,000 a year, was going entirely to the Orlando Utility Commission, per an agreement made in the 1990s that said the utility company would keep costs for its St. Cloud customers low in exchange for the utility tax money.

Last month, OUC agreed to claim only half those funds, freeing up about $190,000 to fund parks and recreation programming, for which the city of Kissimmee already uses its utility tax funding. That interlocal agreement will be up for the council’s approval next week.

Staff also implemented a program fee discount for students, based on their eligibility for free or reduced lunches at school. This makes the fees more affordable for residents with less income, as determined by the Osceola County School District.

Some of the fees that increased include the ones for the camp programs at Hopkins Park. Council members objected earlier that programs at the smaller community center maintained a “night and day” difference to equivalent programs at the Civic Center.

Hopkins Park did cost less – winter and spring break programs were free, while summer camp cost only $6 per child. However, a study of students who attended the camp showed that most did not live in the area directly surrounding the center, giving credit to the argument that parents chose Hopkins Park merely because of the cost difference.

Julie Graf, interim Parks and Recreation director, said she thought the programs should be equitable, especially given the discounts the city wanted to offer based on income. The fees at Hopkins Park were increased to $50 a week, and the programming will mirror those at the Civic Center, which charges $60 a week.

Councilman Jay Polachek objected to what he said was still unfair treatment in the current fees for using the city’s athletic fields.

“We’re not charging Little League enough,” he said. “They’re a huge user of the lights, yet we’re paying for them. That’s a huge expense for $5 per player. I think it’s very inequitable what they’re paying for the use.”

A charge of $15 per player per season for repeat users was approved in the new schedule. The city has a separate agreement with the youth baseball league, the contract for which is currently being renegotiated and will be up for approval in an upcoming meeting, Hurt said.