Swamp Head Brewery hosts Wild Spaces and Public Places fundraiser

About 100 people joined the former mayor of Gainesville on Tuesday to fundraise for the Wild Spaces and Public Places amendment at Swamp Head Brewery.

The initiative, which appears on Alachua County’s general election ballot, proposes a countywide, eight-year sales-tax hike to fund land conservation and the improvement of public parks. If the amendment passes, residents’ sales tax would increase from 6 percent to 6.5 percent.

Elizabeth Manley, a 43-year-old general parks advocate, said the county would benefit from the amendment’s passing.

“We have a wonderful parks system already, but a lot of our facilities are aging and are really in need of maintenance,” she said. “We need to take care of what we have.”

If approved, the county would distribute the sales-tax money to municipalities to be used for public parks, city programming and cultural and arts improvements.

In an effort to reach voters, volunteers have been reaching out to local businesses to fundraise and educate locals about the amendment.

Since July, a pro-amendment political action committee has already raised about $56,000, said Pegeen Hanrahan, a former mayor of Gainesville. She encouraged students to learn about the amendment’s benefits before voting.

“UF students are very important in this election, because those who are registered in Alachua County do ... tend to vote positively on these types of things,” Hanrahan said.

Allison Albritton, a 25-year-old nurse at UF Health Shands Hospital, cast her vote Monday in favor of the initiative, opting for a mail-in ballot. For her, it was a simple decision.

“I go to the parks all the time,” she said. “It’s another tax for eight years, but we have all these beautiful parks in Gainesville — how do you think they are being paid for?”