Rec center not for kids?

SANDUSKY — As a Sandusky city commission advisory committee for the new rec center continues to look at programming options, one city commissioner said a new center could have restricted hours for kids programming. Children who participated in the Sandusky Rec at Mills School latest spring break camp. "My high-level understanding is that, for their safety, children up to some age need to be separated from adults, so any concern that, for example, children will be on a basketball court at the same time as adults is misplaced," commissioner Dennis Murray wrote in an email to the Register, responding to a question about kids programming. "It looks as though peak demand is something like 3-6 (in the afternoons). I don't yet know what the balance looks like and remain hopeful that the advisory committee will address this, but there has to be a way for youth and adult programs to coexist. Other rec centers seem to have figured this out and we can too." Murray proposed the advisory committee, and commission approved forming it in April after the Register began inquiring about suggestions that some commissioners were favoring a rec center plan that would exclude the kids programming now offered at Mills school. Commissioners declined to respond to questions back then about whether the plan being developed was to exclude the kids programming — and, to date, no commissioner has stated support for the programming at Mills school. For decades, however, community members asked the commission to build a rec center for kids. The community conversation about it was always — first and foremost — as a center where kids would be welcomed. In November, residents approved a rec center operating levy that promoted the kids program as a model for a center. The change in focus — from being on kids to now possibly excluding them or restricting the hours for when they can be at the center — is, at least, partially due to the results and recommendations in a report from a consultant the city hired last year. The study, which the city paid about $115,000 to get, acknowledges the Mills school programming but did not address it in any great detail in the design and planning recommendations. The report also estimated construction costs at an extreme high end, according to critics, misrepresenting the potential scope and costs of construction. Dick Brady, the city's ex officio mayor, was the only other commissioner who responded when asked on Monday about including kids programming at the new rec center. His comments suggest that the other commissioners want the advisory committee to decide about kids programming and whether to exclude it. "Our commission believes it would be both inappropriate and disrespectful to offer an individual or collective position on this decision prior to the committee finishing its work," Brady wrote, stating that his reply was on behalf of himself and the other five commissioners. But committee chairman, former city commissioner Blake Harris, opened the advisory committee's first business meeting with one agenda item: a push to make the rec center for members only. Two committee members — Tondra Frisby, the city recreation youth program supervisor, and Jerome Johnson, a director at Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio — responded that membership fees would exclude the families they serve, including those now enrolled in the programs atb Mills school. Despite the concerns, Harris tried but failed to gain a consensus for a membership model. Since then, the committee has been asked to vote in favor of youth programming but has repeatedly declined to do so. Harris has twice blocked a vote. The committee meets again at 5 p.m. today at City Hall. It's unknown if there will be another vote on whether to support youth programming. Murray and Brady both said a final decision would come from a vote of commissioners. "We need to find a way to continue existing programs as well as offering additional programming that a new rec center will now permit," Murray wrote in his response. * What do advisory committee members say? Check back here for updates or get Wednesday's Register at a newsstand near you.