Gym access a concern for rec officials

Rec division looking for officials and scorekeepers, aquatic supervisor and full-time custodian

The City of Sterling Recreation Division is hoping to improve communication with RE-1 Valley School District regarding the use of school gyms. Miscommunication issues between the two were brought up at a regular Parks, Library and Recreation Board meeting Monday.

Recreation Superintendent Monty Waite shared that youth basketball season is getting underway and this year there are 43 teams, up one from last year, and 331 enrollees, up three from last year. With those numbers, he told the board it has been a struggle to find enough gym space for everyone to practice. Right now the city uses Campbell and Ayres Elementary gyms for practices only, not for games, but Waite pointed out that it used to be they could practice until about 9 p.m. at the school gyms, last year it moved to 8 p.m. and this year they can only practice until 7 p.m.

Asked why that is, board member Tyler Blood, who teaches PE at Campbell Elementary, explained that the school custodian is scheduled to be there until 7 p.m. and the school doesn’t want to keep doors open after school staff leave, they want the custodian to be the one locking doors.

That led to a discussion about the city’s intergovernmental agreement with RE-1 regarding the use of school gyms in exchange for schools being able to use city facilities. The agreement is dated Aug. 22, 2000, but renews every year. Tom Bedford pointed out that the IGA states that it is understood that neither party shall limit hours or dates of use for the sole purpose of reducing operations and maintenance costs.

“I understand if it comes down to we can’t get people hired so we don’t have anybody there to do it, because that happens with us with lifeguards. That’s different than us just saying ‘oh, we’re not going to put any lifeguards there because we can’t afford it,’” PLR Director Wade Gandee said.

Blood asked if he should talk to his principal about this. Gandee advised him that the city was

planning to set up a meeting with RE-1 officials to discuss the matter and see if there is someone, a league supervisor that can come lock the doors would it be possible for the city to stay until 9 p.m.

“I can understand the school district wanting to make sure staff is checking the door,” Tracy Glissmann said.

Gandee told the board the biggest issue the city has had is that they turned in request forms for each school in August, as they are required to do under the IGA, and they never heard anything back, so they just assumed everything was okay.

“Then we got told well we can’t come after 7 o’clock now, but our request forms go to 8 p.m. because last year we were told 8 p.m. and nobody told us any different and then the youth from the Family Resource Center now are taking one of the days to be at Campbell and we weren’t told about that, but we were told now we can’t have that day,” Gandee said.

He was very clear, the city has no problem with the FRC, they think it’s a great program; they just would have liked to have known earlier on that they would be using Campbell on Mondays so that space wouldn’t be available for the city.

“Always we try to be very far ahead of everything we’re asking for because we know how hard it is to schedule everything with what the schools do,” Gandee said.

Waite shared that when they were told the FRC would be using Campbell, RE-1 offered to allow them to use the gym at Hagen Early Education Center. Blood said that gym is the same as Campbell’s, but Waite said they’d never been offered it before and he and Gandee were under the impression it was used for storage and since they didn’t think they’d need it they didn’t ask for it in the request forms that they sent out.

Bedford pointed out that IGA states that once a program has been approved and the date and time and use of the facilities have been set, that commitment shall be honored. Neither party shall change that date and time, unless there is a significant reason to do so and both parties shall agree upon changes.

“The hardest thing was we didn’t get a yes or a no on our paperwork; we usually get a return thing saying ‘yes you’re good, everything is fine,’” Gandee said.

Blood and Glissmann asked who the city usually hears back from, if it’s the superintendent or someone else. Waite said it’s everybody and Gandee noted the forms are usually signed off on by each building principal.

For now, the city thinks it should be okay for practice space, but would just like some clarification for the future on the issues mentioned.

“Right now we’re sitting okay, we have I think three total practice times left that people can sign up for and that’s it,” Waite said.

He also advised the rec division is looking for officials and scorekeepers. “We are in pretty dire need of officials and scorekeepers for youth and adults both; we’re coming up real short on those,” Waite said.

Asked why they are losing them, if it’s due to abuse, Waite said that’s some of it but they tried to curb a lot of that with adult basketball last year.

“We noticed some things with our supervisors and stuff which we addressed, kind of changed their mindsets about what they were expected to tolerate and as the season went on it got a lot better,” Waite said.

It does pay well, $16.50plus an hour to be a twoman team and $20 an hour to be a single-man official for adults.

Waite also reported session 10 of swim lessons has started and because there have only been one or two kids wanting to sign up for the 7 to 7:45 p.m. time slot, they aren’t offering it this time. In December, they will offer more sessions, six total, because lifeguards will be out of school on Christmas break. They will have a total of 16 sessions this year and are scheduled for 19 next year.

The rec center is also in need of water safety instructors and lifeguards right now.

Plus, they’re looking for an aquatic supervisor and a new full-time custodian. Right now there is one custodian working from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the second works from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Preferably they want someone who will work 40 hours a week, but right now they just want a second body. Gandee noted it took about six months to hire the last full-time custodian, so they might just hire seasonal custodians who will make minimum wage and come in for as many hours a week as they can.

“We’re just going to have to look at different options because it’s been a rough go trying to get people hired,” he said, adding, “Monty and his staff have been doing a great job over there, and all of our staff has been doing great with working with those kinds of hardships of finding people to work, so kudos to our staff for that.”

Visitation to the rec center is up. Waite shared that as of Monday afternoon they had 17,501 transactions this year, which is an average of about $8.23 per transaction; “we’re pretty excited about that.”

In other business, Gandee advised he will be asking the city council to approve some increases to rec center fees for 2023 due to costs of things going up and minimum wage increasing again in January. He plans to keep the fees in line with what’s being charged by rec centers across the state.

During the superintendent’s reports, Library Superintendent Sandy Van Dusen shared there are still Christmas trees available for anyone who wants to decorate one for the Parade of Trees; sign-up forms are available at the library. Also, tickets for the library’s annual Christmas Tea on Friday, Dec. 2, at 2 p.m. will be available starting Monday.

Overland Trail Museum Curator Kay Rich also gave an update on their holiday events. The museum’s Christmas on the Prairie open houses will be on Dec. 5, 12 and 19. Fire truck Santa will be there on Dec. 5, there will be a “Taste of Christmas” on Dec. 12 and Dec. 19 is “The Sounds of Christmas,” Rich said she sent about 35 letters out to churches and schools hoping to get some carolers at the museum to sing that night.

In other business, the board re-elected Tracy Glissmann and Jim Smith as board chair and vice chair.