Grant saves cinema for Parks and Rec
Posted on Friday, March 14, 2008
A causality of Fayetteville's rigorous round of budget cuts last year has been restored.
The Parks and Recreation Division's Movies in the Park will continue this summer thanks to a $ 2, 500 donation from the Fayetteville Firefighters Association.
Two movies will be shown at the Wilson Park swimming pool and three at the Yvonne Richardson Center.
The Parks and Recreation Division was charged with the task in December of trimming about $ 160, 000 from its 2008 budget.
To keep employees, the staff's recommendation to the council was to discontinue the Fourth of July celebration, the Lights of the Ozarks display, the Gulley Park Concert Series and Movies in the Park.
The department found a way to continue the Gulley Park series and is now proud to announce that the Friday night movies are back on.
Kevin Kyzer, program manager for the city's parks, said it's great to be able to restore the program, which will be in its fourth year.
"We're really grateful to them for donating the money," he said. "Especially since times are hard right now, it's good to give families a free night out."
The program, which showed six movies the past two summers, is pretty popular, Kyzer said," especially the dive-in movies at Wilson Park. We've gotten a real good turnout for those in the past."
Jeremy Ashley, president of the Fayetteville Firefighters Association, said the movies are something enjoyed by the firefighters and their families, and they wanted to do something to keep it going.
"The city of Fayetteville had to tighten its purse strings and had to cut some of the budget items out," he said. "Movies in the Park is one of those things that's profamily. It's free to everybody that wants to come watch a movie, and we thought it was important to continue those things."
Ashley said every department, including the Fire Department, had to cut back its budget some.
"We support wholly the city's efforts to maintain its core services, and we understand why they had to cut some unnecessary programs in order to continue those core services," he said. "So we decided to step up and take this on ourselves."
With the price of gas, Ashley said, it could cost a family of four $ 50 to $ 60 to go to a movie.
"On a Friday night you can go out to the pool and watch a movie for free," he said. "Parks and Recreation does such a good job, and we're so proud of them. We're just proud to be partnered up with them."
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