Spokane board cuts recreation programs

The Spokane Park Board on Thursday approved its 2005 spending budget that call for cuts in recreation programs and higher fees for golf and swimming.

Park Board Director Mike Stone said that a proposal to charge fees for youth swimming next summer is being referred to an ad hoc committee of the board.

Stone said that even if charges are implemented for youth swimming, he expects each of the pools will have free sessions each week. The budget calls for raising swimming revenue by $50,000 next year, although it does not specify how that money is to be raised. The Shadle Park outdoor pool is slated for closure as part of the cuts.

Parks department staffers have suggested charging $1 per session for children, but the full Park Board would have to implement any such suggestion.

Under the city charter, the Park Board has sole authority over spending decisions for parks and recreation.

Walt Shields, a Spokane resident, urged the board to keep free swimming for children. “The pools are very close to my heart for low-income children,” he said.

Stone said, “We are trying to be as sensitive as we can to all our neighborhoods in the community.”

Because of increasing costs for wages, health benefits and other expenses, the department was forced to meet a $1 million shortfall in its $13.36 million budget for 2005 through a series of cuts and higher admission fees.

The board hopes to take advantage of more corporate sponsorships at Riverfront Park, as well as higher charges for all kinds of park uses. The department is eliminating maintenance of traffic islands, saving $35,000. Wading pools are being closed at a savings of $25,000. Those pools were facing new state health regulations requiring lifeguards, officials said. Closing the Shadle pool will save $30,000.

Five senior centers and the Project Joy senior performance program will see cuts of about 15 percent next year. That is less than the cuts of 20 percent or more that were initially proposed for the centers. Seniors turned out last month at City Council and Park Board meetings to argue against the cuts.

“We appreciate your willingness to listen to us,” Don Bender, who said he was representing the senior centers, told board members.

Community centers will also see similar reductions in funding. The East Central Community Center is losing a before- and after-school child care program as well as its recreation leaders. As a result, the East Central center is taking a $46,000 cut, which is about half of its 2004 funding.

Other cuts include elimination of the Kids of Summer youth program and a $145,000 cut for the Northeast Youth Center.

Kimbre Vega, director at the center, told the board the youth center’s programs in northeast Spokane are serving low-income families. Of the children that participate in youth center offerings, 91 percent qualify for free- or reduced-price lunches, she said.

“I want you to know things are a little serious out there,” she said, with a large number of the center’s children appearing at the meeting as part of a Veterans Day outing.

They were part of the “five minutes for recreation” segment of each Park Board meeting.

The before- and after-school care program at the Northeast Youth Center will see reductions in staffing, but will meet state requirements for day care.

Much of the funding for that program comes through state reimbursements, Vega said.

In the separate golf budget, weekday fees charged for daily rounds of golf were increased from $21 to $23 at Downriver, Esmeralda and Qualchan golf courses, and from $21 to $27 at those courses on weekends. The weekday fee at Indian Canyon Golf Course will remain at $25, but will increase from $25 to $27 on weekends.

The fees were increased to meet a 6 percent increase in costs and a depleted cash carryover from 2004 to 2005. The golf courses operate as a separate fund on a break-even basis, said board member Frank Knott.