Meeting Set in Riverview on Controversial County Parks Plan

Residents will have a chance tonight to review a proposal by the county parks department calling for some recreation centers to close and for a new recreation center to be built in FishHawk Ranch.

The meeting will take place at the Riverview Civic Center, 11020 Park Drive, Riverview, June 22 at 6:30 p.m.

At the meeting, Mark Thornton, directof of the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department, will review a nine-page proposal for continuing to fund the park system.

According to Thornton, tough economic times is forcing the county to take a new look at how it funds its park system and whether it can continue to offer all the programs and services it currently has.

As part of the plan, Thornton said the county is considering consolidating recreation centers.

The county currently has 42 recreation centers located throughout the county including the Riverview Civic Center and the Bloomingdale West Recreation Center.

In his plan, Thornton proposes cutting programmed activities and staff at 30 centers and renting them out to community groups and other organizations, such as the Scouts, garden clubs and arts and crafts groups. 

Under his plan, Thornton wants to continue staffing the Northdale, All People's and University Center recreation centers, expanding the Westchase, Town 'n Country, Thonotosassa, Brandon, Gardenville and Ruskin centers, and building new centers in Keystone, Progress Village and FishHawk Ranch.

That would bring the total square footage of programmed space at Hillsborough County recreation centers from 242,000 square feet to 250,000 square feet. Thorton added that the remaining centers would be within a five- to 15-minute drive of residents, Thornton noted.

In addition to dropping the programmed activities at 30 recreation center, Thornton is proposing ending the after-school program at all county recreation centers, outsourcing the maintenance of recreation centers and county-owned sports fields and reducing staffing at county parks from 534 to 391 full-time staff equivalent positions, meaning 143 employees will lose their jobs.

At a meeting June 9 at the Brandon Recreation Center, Thornton's proposal to cut programs, including the after-school program, didn't sit well with residents.

Brandon resident Megan Cox noted that, despite the cutbacks, the county is going ahead with plans to build two skateboard parks, one in Brandon and one in south county.

"I would rather have an after-school program than a skateboard park," she said.

She also pointed out that it could be 10 years before the regional centers are built or expanded. That includes building a gymasium onto the Brandon Recreation Center and building at new center at the FishHawk Sports Complex.

"These kids need to be in a program now," she said.

Currently, 41 county sites host after-school programs where parents pay up to $18 to $135 a week, depending on income.

Thorton said he understood the concerns of parents. "But we need to do things differently," he said. He said the programmed recreation centers will continue to have programs after school but, instead of having a park-staffed after-school program, the parks department will bring in instructors to teach special-interest classes, such as karate or dance. "We'll have single-focused education-based programs that children can participate in at all 12 centers from 2 to 6 p.m."

Thorton also suggests the county can make better use of its regional parks by hosting summer camps.

"This will give kids a chance to get out into the wilderness and we'll create a while new generation of tree huggers," he said.

He said there are other after-school programs available to parents including the school district's HOST (Hillsborough Out of School Time) program, various programs at the YMCA and the Boys & Girls Clubs.

He added that the parks department will continue to offer camp days when schools are closed as well as summer programs.

He noted that the after-school program at the recreation centers has been on the decline. Once the county accommodated 3,500 children. Now, only 1,800 children attend the county's after-school program, adding that the fees parents now pay for the program do not cover the costs. The program is now subsidized by tax revenues, he said.

But Riverview resident Michelle Imhoff, who now takes her children to the after-school program at the Riverview Civic Center, said it isn't practical for her to take her kids all the way to the Gardenville Recreation Center on Symmes Road in Gibsonton.

"It's a 45-minute drive to Gardenville, and that's a high-crime area," she said.