If you play, you have to pay — or at least have your local government pay for you.

And you may need to keep an eye — as in electronic eyes — on who is playing and who is just hanging around.

An outside study has concluded that Deltona’s parks need some major upgrades to keep pace with growth and the demand for safe places to spend leisure time.

“We have been working on this plan for 18 months,” Kristin Caborn, of GAI Consultants Inc., of Orlando, told the Deltona City Commission Nov. 13.

“You’ve got a good distribution of parks throughout Deltona,” she also said.

Deltona has 20 municipal parks around the sprawling city.

Caborn, a senior planning manager with the firm, said many of the people surveyed about the parks want more restrooms, as well as playgrounds, basketball courts, pavilions, sports fields, and even gymnasiums.

“One thing that’s high on the list is restrooms,” she added.

Commissioner Dana McCool called for the city of nearly 100,000 to save land for recreational purposes.

“I want to see as much green space for our residents and children as possible,” she said.

As well as making the parks places to enjoy, Caborn recommended city officials consider a concept known as Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. Parks, she said, should be open spaces, with as few barriers as possible.

“The neighbors can see what’s going on. The police department can see what’s going on as they drive by,” she said.

Caborn recommended parks have “strategic lighting” to deter crimes at night. Something else that may head off crimes, McCool suggested, is the presence of surveillance cameras in the parks.

“There’s a lot of vandalism. There’s a lot of pot smoking in the parks,” she said, adding “kids skipping school” sometimes go to the parks.

“If you’re going to have cameras, they need to be monitored,” Caborn said.

That prompted the question of who — the city’s park personnel or the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, which serves as Deltona’s police force — would be responsible for watching the live, closed-circuit video to catch someone in the act of breaking the law.

Deltona has surveillance cameras trained on its utilities assets, such as storage tanks and water-treatment facilities, but not the parks, according to Interim City Manager Glenn Whitcomb.

Caborn said Deltona could probably secure grants for the placement and operation of security cameras in its parks.

Caborn concluded the GAI report by recommending the city embark upon a long-term plan to improve its existing parks and add new ones. The decade-long plan would start with short-term improvements totaling $24.8 million in the first four years; a midterm of five to 10 years that would cost $22.7 million; and a long-term — 10 years plus — outlay of $11.1 million. The grand total of the capital plan is now $58.6 million, but that number could increase.

The operations and maintenance of the parks, however, are a recurring expense.

“Maintaining parks over the long term is more important than building parks with capital dollars,” Caborn said.

Deltona’s Parks and Recreation Department will cost approximately $8.4 million during the current fiscal year, the city’s budget notes. The department has 57 people on its payroll.

The City Commission took no action on the parks report, because it was only a workshop, or informal meeting during which officials make no actual policy decisions.