Winter/Spring 2022 Director’s Letter
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
The COVID-19 Pandemic Impact On Parks & Recreation Funding
In 2020 the City commissioned a study to chart a thoughtful course to employ a community-centered approach to business recovery. The consultant’s goal was to understand emerging, critical community needs and opportunities. The recommendation from the study was that the single greatest strength the City of Airway Heights has to offer is the Recreation Center. Recently another consultant began work on the update to the Comprehensive Plan. At our Airway Heights Day event they asked community members what their favorite thing about Airway Heights was.The Recreation Center again was the number one response, the event itself was second and Sunset Park also made the short list.
Unfortunately this strong recognition from businesses and community members of the value that they place on supporting Parks & Recreation does not guarantee we receive the financial and staffing resources we need. No other department has suffered the impact of the pandemic to the extent the Parks & Recreation Department has. A National Recreation & Park Association study found that local officials freely acknowledge that they target Parks & Recreation for substantial budget cuts when communities face a fiscal crisis. This is despite the fact that they also wholeheartedly agree that Parks & Recreation significantly benefits the community, by enhancing quality of life and promoting healthy lifestyles.
We hear on a daily basis and understand the frustration that members have with our limited operating hours. Our 2022 budget requested funding that was cut from our budget to restore staffing and provide the ability to expand our hours of operation and improve maintenance practices. December 29th provided our first opportunity to see what was approved in the initial 2022 budget. The approved budget provides 44% less than the request and 74% less than our Pre-COVID budget. We also continue to feel the impact of the elimination of two of our full time positions at the Rec Center and one full time position in the Parks Division.
In our first ten months of operation in February of 2020 our membership grew to 1,564 memberships. After being forced to close for eleven months due to COVID and now being open again with the current restrictions and reduced hours we currently have 707 memberships. To date in 2021 we have lost $606,660 in membership revenue as a direct result of the COVID Pandemic. We are hoping that the Council will consider allocating a portion of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding that the City received for this purpose. ARPA Funds are targeted to provide relief for local communities to respond to the pandemic and replace lost revenues and bring back jobs. Cutting funding may provide a short-term respite for budget shortfalls, but the impact of these cuts ripples beyond the initial savings, impacting our ability to deliver on our vision to transform our community into a more vibrant and prosperous community for all.
The pandemic has extracted a high cost across our nation. Even the best minds can only guess when business activity and revenues will return to normal. Communities are facing tremendous fiscal pressures over the coming months and years. As a result, policymakers are facing difficult decisions on the budgets and staffing of their jurisdiction’s services. Now more than ever we need support to deliver on our mission to create a healthier and happier community.
J.C. Kennedy
Parks & Recreation Director
