DALTON, Ga. — Children who live in the city of Dalton won’t have to pay fees to take part in city recreation department sports next year.

Members of the city’s Finance Committee, which is comprised of the members of the City Council and some department heads, took that option off the table when the committee met on Wednesday.

The city has long had a free recreation department that is open to residents of the city and Whitfield County. But in a meeting last week, members of the Finance Committee raised the possibility that the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department would charge a $20 fee to city residents per sport and $30 to county residents as part of an effort to cut a possible deficit in the 2017 budget.

Recreation Director Steve Card told Finance Committee members he’d received “numerous” phone calls about the proposal and that the recreation commission had voted to oppose such fees when it met on Tuesday.

City Council member Tyree Goodlett, who is cubmaster of a Cub Scout pack that meets at the Mack Gaston Community Center, said he worried that fees would discourage children such as the ones he mentors from taking part in city recreation department programs.

Card told Finance Committee members that recreation departments that charge fees typically provide “scholarships” for children who are eligible for free school lunches. Card said if Dalton did that, up to 75 percent of the children who take part in youth sports could be eligible for such scholarships, which would reduce the revenues generated by the fees.

“I am very relieved and very pleased that the recreation commission voted not to impose fees and that the Finance Committee upheld that decision,” Card said. “It says something about our community and its commitment to open opportunities to our kids. “I’m really proud of our forefathers for setting this up, and I’m glad that we are going to continue this tradition.”

Committee members did leave open the possibility that they will impose fees on those who do not live inside the city limits.