There is an alternative to a YMCA in St. Mary’s
In 2012 I tried to start a nonprofit youth track and field club in St Mary’s County. At the time I was more focused on getting kids on a 400-meter track than county politics; my path of least resistance was through recreation and parks.
Initially the county’s recreation and parks department was reluctant to be involved in a youth track and field program, but the sports supervisor conceded and made it happen. For the next seven years I ran the recreation and parks summer youth track and field program at Leonardtown High School. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut us down, I tried (again) to reserve the LHS track on my own.
Now I understand recreation and parks department’s initial reluctance to be involved. Using school grounds or facilities in the summer is difficult and expensive.
During the summer season, fees are especially prohibitive. For example, St Mary’s County Public School demands nearly three times the cost of renting a privately-owned gym.
The public school system also requires users to carry and show $1 million in liability insurance. The one-size-fits-all insurance requirement applies to any applicant for any permit to use any facility, indoor or outdoors. While $1 million may seem like a reasonable requirement, only a small percentage of St. Mary’s County citizens carry that much liability. Because of the school system’s socioeconomically biased policy, lower-middle class individuals need not apply.
I’m not calling our school officials prejudiced or elitist. In my opinion they don’t want to be in the facility rental business and they wrote some bad rules to avoid doing their job. One could politely argue SMCPS is predisposed to view Community Use of Public Facilities, or CUPF, as an unimportant, unnecessary part of their job. Unfortunately Maryland State law says: “Each county board shall encourage the use of public-school facilities for community purposes,” as listed at Md. Code Ann., Educ. § 7-108.
This is where SMCPS and the board of education revised state law for their own convenience. As stated in the current SMCPS school use brochure, the public school system “encourages the community to appropriately use its facilities.” Appropriately as determined by whom? What definition of “appropriate” is being used? This is an arbitrary rule. Arbitrary rules are a hallmark of bad government.
The residents of St Mary’s County currently own and pay the county to operate over 30 basketball gymnasiums, two swimming pools, six artificial turf fields and three 400-meter running tracks. Three more turf fields are in the plan or under construction at our local high schools. Unfortunately most of these facilities are off limits to the average citizen.
To be clear, our community is paying a huge price for public facilities we can’t use. This is a problem.
The solution is not to make the constituents of St Mary’s County pay for another public facility. The answer is to improve administration of CUPF. Better CUPF policies in St. Mary’s County are long overdue. St Mary’s County CUPF problems will not be solved by building a YMCA.
Matt Mobley,