Madison County to consider adopting a recreation district

City and county leaders said Madison County lacks a place for the public to spend time and enjoy.

In an area dominated by families and heavily populated with youth, Madison County is looking into creating a recreation district for all county residents to use.

“We’re just different than many other cities,” said Richard Woodland, Rexburg’s mayor. “Demographically, we’ve got more children by far and we need things for them to do.”

A recreation district would include things like a public pool, picnic space and sports fields. But in order to do that, the community must be in agreement and willing to pay an increased tax to make it possible.

“That’s money. Everything has a cost,” said Woodland. “If we could split it thinly enough so that everyone could afford it, that would be great.”

A committee is being formed to look at the possibilities. City leaders say the whole process would take years to complete.

“Go out, discuss it with the public, get their input and then come back to the community leaders and decide if it’s something they should do to benefit the community,” said Matthew Nielson, Rexburg’s deputy finance officer.

Government leaders said this has been attempted before, but was unsuccessful.