5.3. SR 06-28-1999 - Laserfiche WebLink

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rei ---'\) ( )j tli< Item #5.3. MEMORANDUM FROM: Mayor & City Council Pat Klaers, City ~strator June 28, 1999 ~ DATE: SUBJECT: Community Recreation . Prior to the creation of the Community Recreation Joint Powers Agreement and organization, there was a great deal of concern in the city of Elk River about two issues. One issue was that the city was having Community Education manage its city recreation programs and children throughout the school district were participating in these programs, but without each local unit of government financially participating. The second area of concern was the youth associations and how services could be improved so that the volunteers could concentrate on what they wanted to do, which is coaching, and not be bogged down in administrative work for such things as field maintenance, field scheduling for games and practices, registration, etc. Prior to creation of the Community Recreation organization, these were the two major areas of concern and these two areas of concern have since been addressed. Over the past seven years, I think everyone in Elk River, from the staff to the Park and Recreation Commission to the City Council, got comfortable with having Jeff Asfahl as our recreation director in dealing with school field/facilities issues, working with the youth organization, and managing the recreation programs. Jeff was very creative in working with the Mayor and Council on the "youth initiatives" program, developing the youth center (now called Emporium), helping to program activities at the ice arena complex, and especially in working with the youth associations. I was Jeffs supervisor on behalf of the Board and, consequently, saw Jeff on a daily basis. . At this point, I am still recommending that the city go on its own and develop a city recreation (park and recreation?) department. The city would still work closely with Community Education in programming activities, field and gym scheduling, and providing services to the youth organization. If the city simply did its own recreation programming and employed a receptionist, a recreation supervisor, a programmer, and some part time help, it is believed that the cost would be comparable to what our expenses are currently for membership and services as part of the Community Recreation program. This assumes the contracting out of some services to neighboring communities. f: \ shrdoc \ council \ crparagh.doc 13065 Orono Parkway · P.O. Box 490 · Elk River, MN 55330 · TDD & Phone: (612) 441-7420. Fax: (612) 441-7425