4/5/2004 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Recreation Commission Meeting April 5, 2004 Mr. Baxter said that there are other conflicting interests within the Recreation area: the softball league, the soccer league, the tennis courts, the basketball courts, the pool, to name a few. There are so many other things except hockey that need attention. What it comes down to is this: does the City want to invest the money in this facility or not? The Hockey Club is just part of it. Mr. Baxter would oppose spending a lot of money on the hockey rink and ignoring everything else, because it would not be fair to everyone else. It must be much bigger than just the Hockey Club. Ms. Steed said that if you have a nice ice rink and facility, there's an opportunity to have tournaments at the facility. When you bring in teams from out of town, you need to consider what those teams spend in the City of North Olmsted in hotels and restaurants and shopping. There's that component to having a good facility available for tournaments also. Mr. Baxter suggested that may be a hard sell to a resident who doesn't use the skating facility and views it as "outsiders" using the facility and not residents. Westlake has a beautiful facility, but you must be a resident to use it. Yesterday's Plain Dealer had a long article about recreational facilities that indicated how almost all of them don't make money and must be subsidized. Many cities are very uncomfortable with that. North Olmsted is no different than any others; in fact, maybe it's different in that the facility is a little older, and it has more problems than most. Mr. DiSalvo said that, looking at the situation from a business point of view, the ice rink brought in $394,000 in 2003. The next nearest program was the pool, which brought in $170,000. Obviously, the rink is generating more money than any other department the Rec has. Hence, it would only make sense to make improvements in the rink. Mr. Baxter noted that one must look at the cost of maintaining the ice. Mr. DiSalvo said that North Olmsted is known around town for its ice rink and it just makes sense to make improvements in it. Mr. Stein was asked if it would be better to shut the ice down; his reply was that process actually hurts it. The crew will shave the ice down as close as possible to the pipes so that work can be done on the blue top. It will look like new. Ms. Kanis asked Mr. Limpert and Mr. Miller if they knew what happens to the ideas when they go to Council. Mr. Limpert said that a lot of things have not even made it to Council or the Rec Department would go to Council with so many requests without a priority that it would be difficult to know what was most needed. Lately, however, the Rec Department is doing a good job of trying to focus on what is necessary. Mr. Miller said that as far as specific plans, Council has not seen any cohesive plans that have been cited in legislation that can be voted yes or no on. There has always been a lot of talk with no packaged plan; Council gets frustrated with that. A recent example of something positive was the Barton-Bradley Soccer Club plan. Mr. Galippo said then, what the Hockey Club should be doing is working with the Rec Commission to come up with a plan to prioritize. Mr. Miller said absolutely, the Rec Commission is the body to present to Council, and the Hockey Club must sell them on its plan. When the Rec Commission reports to Council that such and such is its plan, then it will receive attention. Page 5