Not even Santa can escape the pitfalls of a down economy.
By Kyle LoJacono
Staff Writer
LUTZ — Christmas in the Park will not happen this year for one very big reason — money.
“On Nov. 1, people from the Parks (Recreation and Conservation) Department changed all the locks at the Lutz Community Center without telling anyone,” Marilyn Wannamaker said. “They told us they were charging (nonprofit) organizations $20 an hour to use the center.”
Wannamaker is the president of the Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club, but she said she was only speaking as a concerned citizen of Lutz.
“What really makes me upset is that the county had nothing to do with building the center or the train depot, but now they are charging anyone to use it,” Wannamaker said. “We use the center and so did the Garden Club, two bridge clubs, a bunch of woodworkers, the Boy Scouts and the Civil Air Patrol. Now the bridge clubs have nowhere to play and the scouts and CAP can’t have a place to have dinners to celebrate their awards. It would cost us way too much to have the Christmas in the Park, much less all our meetings at the center.”
As of November, any nonprofit group must pay $20 an hour to use either the Lutz Train Depot or the center, and other groups must pay $40. Even the Little Women of Lutz, the youth arm of the Woman’s Club, will have to pay to meet at Nye Park.
The Woman’s Club has approval to meet at the Land O’ Lakes Community Center without charge.
To put on the Christmas in the Park as it had in past years, the Woman’s Club would have to rent the center, the train depot and the park next to the depot. They would also be charged $20 a day to put up the giant holiday cards along W. Lutz-Lake Fern Road.
“We learned about the new fees when we heard that the Christmas in the Park was canceled,” said Robert Coates, committee chairperson for Boy Scout Troop 12 in Lutz. “We always put the cards up for the Woman’s Club and then take them down, but they told us it would cost them about $250 to have the cards up.”
Coates said the scouts are working to get permission from the Free Masons to use Masonic Lodge for future dinners and special events.
In past years, the Woman’s Club and Lutz Civic Association would give out hot chocolate and cookies from the center while the event happened in the park, but not this year.
“It’s just terrible to lockout all the people of Lutz from the facilities that we put up,” Wannamaker said. “The county just told us the Woman’s and the Garden Club could use the center rent free as long as we made them our co-sponsor for everything we do and used their logo. We still have to vote to see if we are going to do that or not at our January meeting.”
The situation is not as simple as repealing the new fees.
“The charges are a necessity,” said John Brill, spokesperson for the Parks department. “We don’t want to charge people, but it’s either that or close parks. During the public hearing portion of the decision making process, the majority of the people that attended said they’d rather see the fees than parks close.”
The department also forced every car that attended the Lake Park Arts and Crafts Festival on Dec. 5 and 6 to pay $2 for the first time. The weather was not ideal that weekend, but only 15,000 people attended the festival.
In 2008, between 35,000 and 40,000 went to the two-day show.
“People thought that the money was going to the Woman’s Club, but we didn’t get any of it,” said Shirley Simmons, club member and co-chairperson for the festival. “It was surprise to us that there would be a gate fee back in October.
“The rangers at the park had to man the gates, so they weren’t as visible and helpful as in years past.”
Simmons has been a club member since 1980 and was the president from 1984 to 1986.
“In spite of all of it, we had a great weekend,” Simmons said. “The art show was a success and our over 250 vendors were happy.”
Nothing is planned as of now to protest the new fees, it seems that may change with time.
“We have nothing set in stone to do anything now until we have a united effort from the community to stop this nonsense,” Wannamaker said. “As far as I know, no one is using the facility now, which is really pointless to have a building that no one can afford to use.”
