Wednesday, Jul. 01, 2009

Community feels pinch as Sacramento's parks, schools prepare to close

Day camp counselors Maija Williams and Rob Creer corralled a group of summer camp kids out of the afternoon sun in Southside Park and into the community room to play board games.

Williams, 19, and Creer, 30, are among 26 city recreation aides whose day camps the city decided to close because of budget deficits. The counselors will be out of work Monday.

"I don't know what I'll do," Williams said. "You can't collect unemployment when you work a seasonal job for the city."

The city announced this week deep cuts to youth programs, pool hours and park maintenance. The cuts will save the city nearly $4.5 million.

That's not comforting to children whose summer camp programs will end mid-session, families whose neighborhood pools will close to the public just as the summer gets hot, and to summer lifeguards and camp counselors whose hours will be halved or cut completely.

And there's little hope among city officials that programs and services will go back to normal levels next season.

"For the foreseeable future, that's the level of services we're able to provide," said Dave Mitchell, operations manager for the city's parks and recreation department.

In the cool shade of the Southside Park community room, groups of children huddled over magnetic building blocks, the foosball table, and a fierce game of Risk. Eight-year-old Kaylee Kazee frowned as one of her playmates invaded Alaska.

Kaylee said she was disappointed when her mother said this was her last week at Southside Park at 6th and W streets.

"This is the best one I ever came to," Kaylee said. "There are less kids, lots of activities, it also has a shelter. Land Park doesn't have a shelter."

William Land Park's summer camp is among the 15 programs that survived the cuts. The majority of those remaining are outdoor sites with only shade to hide from the sun, a concern some parents are raising about the cuts.

The city has told parents their children can attend a camp that isn't being cut. But Kaylee's mom, Cindy Kazee, said her choice was "based on amenities."

She said she wanted her son and daughter to have access to both the outdoors and an indoor space.

Kazee said the city should re-examine its fees, because parents would be willing to pay more. "I paid $100 for eight weeks of child care," Kazee said. "I'd be happy to pay twice that."

The budget cuts also forced the department to close public swim hours at five municipal pools – Cabrillo, George Sim, Glenn Hall, Mangan and Natomas High School – though swimming lessons and swim team practices will continue as scheduled.

All other pools will reduce their public swim hours by half, according to Greg Narramore, superintendent of Aquatics and Public Safety.

"This is absolutely unprecedented," Narramore said.

Two-year-old Madeleine Winchell paddled her first swimming strokes toward her mother, Jennifer Winchell, in River Park's Glenn Hall pool Monday afternoon. That evening, Winchell came home to news reports that her neighborhood pool was closing.

Winchell said she comes to the pool nearly every weekday with her two young daughters, Madeleine and Olivia, 4.

She's also worried about the city's decision to close bathrooms in virtually all the city parks.

"They're just going to let the park smell like urine," Winchell said.

Some neighborhood groups are rallying to keep their community pools open.

Jeff Harris, president of the River Park Neighborhood Association, said it and other neighborhood groups are talking with District 3 Councilman Steve Cohn to see if the community can raise money to keep the pool open for general swimming.

It costs $138 per hour to keep a small pool like Glenn Hall open, according to Dave Mitchell, operations manager. Larger pools cost about twice that amount.

"That's a lot of money for neighbors to raise to keep swimming pools open," Harris said.

"We really want to keep this pool open," Harris said. "Even if we got two hours, three days a week."