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Minutes of a Meeting of <br />The Parks and Recreation Commission <br />May 2, 2005 <br /> <br />administration, but perhaps the prudent course of action would be to say that we table anything <br />with the development of athletic facilities until there is a collaborative effort between the city and <br />the schools seen. Ms. Wenger, in her remarks, has indicated that this not be an open-ended type <br />of commitment; there will be a timeline that will be developed as part of this process, but the ball <br />has to get rolling sooner or later and, hopefully, sooner. <br /> <br />Ms. Wenger said that she thought the schools have done a good job in putting forth a proposal in <br />indicating what their needs are, and the city needs to do the same, since it has needs of its own <br />which need to be addressed explicitly in a plan. There will be some areas where cooperation <br />makes sense and other ways where it won’t. Recreation must be looked at as a whole instead of <br />isolating certain elements. As the schools move along with their campaign and when we <br />understand the vote in November, then we can see the public’s commitment to support certain <br />things and we can work towards cooperation. <br /> <br />Mr. Lasko said this was just brainstorming now. He could see that a proposal to a community <br />would be: we would like to see your opinion about the conversion of Pine from an intermediate <br />school into a new Middle School which would, in fact, then, encompass athletics at its own level. <br />As a result, the campus at Pine would have the attendant development of a football field and some <br />baseball fields, etc. It would only make sense to develop that at the same time as the Middle <br />School is being developed in order to meet the athletic needs of the Middle School people and <br />then see how well it fits in with the overall recreational plan of the City of North Olmsted. The <br />proposal on the table right now in conceptual form about the construction of an athletic field <br />behind the existing Middle School could be held in abeyance pending the outcome of a look at <br />recreational facilities as a whole. <br /> <br />Mr. Jesse said that within the next two or three years there will be major issues connected to the <br />pool: repair issues or complete renovation. In anything Mr. Jesse saw from the schools, there <br />isn’t anything in their proposal for a new hockey rink or pool. If the schools intend on continuing <br />the hockey program or swim program, then part of that issue in the Fall should have some money <br />in it that comes from the schools towards the renovations of those two recreational facilities. <br />That amount could be easily calculated. That should be part of the bond issue, set aside and <br />spoken for and, if the repair is necessary, the monies will be available. There have been <br />preliminary discussions with the superintendent to that effect and, in principle, that was part of the <br />process as far as wanting to continue with the programs and using the Rec facilities to do so. The <br />schools did not have any plans in putting together the pool or hockey rink. This should be a <br />definite component to the levy. There should be a recommendation from the Rec Commission <br />very soon to say that in consideration of the whole tax issue in North Olmsted, anything the <br />schools want to do with recreation must come from the schools. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelley said that Mr. Jesse’s thoughts aligned with his thinking. Mr. Jesse said that the fact <br />remains that there have been seven school levies turned down in the past fifteen years, and there <br />Page 7 <br /> <br />