After school program may get axed
By Kyle LoJacono
The once popular after school program offered by the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department appears to be on its last legs.
The program costs Hillsborough residents $7 million each year, despite the fact the number of kids enrolled has plummeted by more than one-third in the last three years.
The elimination of the program was part of a plan by parks and recreation director Mark Thornton to cut $7.5 million from the department’s budget for the next fiscal year. Other parts of his proposal include layoffs and outsourcing athletic field maintenance activities.
“The bottom line is, we are trying to put ourselves in the direction of strong financial sustainability,” Thornton said. “We’re not there now. We have not been there. We’ve been patching things year to year.”
One of the more radical elements to Thornton’s cost-cutting plan would consolidate programs now offered at many parks throughout the county at a few large sites. Right now 42 of the department’s 180 parks are permanently staffed. The plan would be to have only 30 with workers all the time.
“The problem right now is, we have some parks way over capacity and others that are hardly being used,” Thornton said. “The latest figures I saw is some are at 130 percent capacity and others are as low as 30 percent. It doesn’t make sense to continue to staff the parks that are hardly being used instead of moving them to the more popular sites.”
Thornton wants the smaller parks to have staffing only during community meetings and other gatherings. He predicts this would free up money to let the department build gymnasiums, pools, skate parks and other facilities to better serve the public while cutting the overall budget. On average, the larger parks would have 15,000 square feet of indoor space.
One of these larger regional parks would be a new 40-acre site in Odessa/Keystone. The commission is currently debating if they should take $1.6 million allocated for a community center in Citrus Park to help buy the land, which includes a 22,000-square-foot building and a pair of indoor basketball courts.
“We’ve gotten a lot of complaints from people in Citrus Park who want the community center built, but those community centers are part of the funding problem we have right now,” said Commissioner Ken Hagan. “We build these centers and then we can’t afford to staff them. … I don’t think we would ever be able to build a Citrus Park center in the current economy.”
Thornton said a park in Odessa/Keystone could have soccer and other athletic fields, which could play host to regional tournaments.
“That would generate money for the department and the county,” Thornton said.
Thornton said all locations would still have its athletic fields and courts open as they are now, even if they lose its staffing.
Thornton’s master plan could only go into place if the after school program, such as the one at Nye Park in Lutz, was eliminated. Parents and guardians of kids in the course started paying $48 a week two years ago, up from $20. The numbers of children attending the parks dropped from 6,000 to 1,800 since then.
The program costs $7 million a year to maintain and has not dropped with the reduction in kids participating because of fixed costs like insurance and staffing, according to Thornton.
Thornton said most of the kids who left the program were moved into the similar one through Hillsborough School District. Linda Cobbe, a school district spokeswoman, said the school program could immediately take in those 1,800 kids.
Additionally, 64 full-time and 33 part-time department employees would see their jobs eliminated. They would mainly be from the after school program and from maintenance crews.
County administrator Mike Merrill said any county works near retirement would likely receive a buyout. However he did say it would be impossible to do it for everyone as Hillsborough will need to cut about $65 million from its budget for the 2012 fiscal year.
“We need to make sure the kids in these programs have a place to go while staying economically sound,” Merrill said. “It’s going to be one of a long line of difficult cuts facing the commissioners.”
Meetings set for after school program
The Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department will have several public meetings to get citizen’s opinions about the proposal to eliminate its after school program.
In addition to providing comment on the recommendations, those attending will learn about other options and changes to the county’s program, how to apply for financial assistance and what to look for in quality after school or summer programs.
Meetings schedule includes:
–Wednesday, May 4 at the Northdale Recreation Center, 15550 Spring Pine Drive in Tampa
–Wednesday, May 11 at the Ruskin Recreation Center, 901 Sixth St. S.E. in Ruskin
–Saturday, May 14 at University Area Community Center, 14013 N. 22nd St. in Tampa
–Wednesday, May 18 at the Gardenville Recreation Center, 6219 Symmes Road in Gibsonton
–Wednesday, June 1 at University Area Community Center, 14013 N. 22nd St. in Tampa
–Saturday, June 4 at All People’s Life Center, 6105 E. Sligh Ave. in Tampa
–Wednesday, June 8 at the Brandon Community Center, 502 E. Sadie St. in Brandon
All information presented will be the same at each meeting so parents and community partners have the option to attend any of them. For more information on meeting dates and locations, call (813) 635-8110.
*Wednesday meeting are from 6-7 p.m. Saturday meetings are from 10-11 a.m.
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