Agenda - 04-25-2006-1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Schools and Local Recreation Programs Three invited speakers as shown below gave ten minute presentations each, followed by a question and answer period with Work Group members. Robb English Chair Orange County Recreation and Parks Advisory Council • County recreation programs use Orange High School's wrestling room, football field for games (but not practice), and tennis courts and track (during non - school hours). • Cedar Ridge serves as the back -up location for the jazz festival. • The youth basketball program plays at the County's central and northern recreation centers, but not any of the OCS facilities because program organizers consider the rental costs for OCS facilities to be too high. • The County's northern recreation center is used for youth basketball practice, but not for games because the floor is carpeted. All of the youth basketball games are played at the central center. One implication of this is that other recreation activities, such as pick -up basketball games, cannot take place at the central center as often as desired. • The Advisory Council is interested in providing indoor athletic leagues but no facilities exist to support this. • County recreation programs would need additional facilities, even if all the space sought by the Advisory Council from OCS were available for community recreation. What's needed is a multi -use indoor facility, but it is challenging to find a site that is served by water and sewer. • The Advisory Council would like to have access to more OCS facilities for informal play on weekends. Some schools already are available for this, but others are not. For example, the track at Cedar Ridge is not accessible on weekends. Some playgrounds are not accessible on weekends. • The Advisory Council understands the need to pay fees to OCS for formal athletic events, but its current understanding of the fee schedule leads it to conclude that OCS facilities are cost prohibitive for non - school community recreation programs. His understanding was that there is a one -time annual application fee, a facility fee, a custodial fee, and a utilities fee, but later in the meeting Ms. Wilkerson said that there are two fees to use district facilities: a $30 processing fee, which is not charged to the County's recreation department, and a custodial /use of facility fee. • The Advisory Council would like access to OCS cooking spaces for home economics programs, and theater spaces for community drama. Last summer, Orange High was used for community theater in exchange for a fee. "We understand the need to charge but we want to be able to negotiate the fee," Mr. English said. • The County shares its facilities with the schools, he noted, for example CHCCS has used the Homestead Center for meetings. In response to Mr. English's presentation, Ms. Wilkerson said that there are two fees to use OCS facilities: a $30 processing fee, which is not charged to the County's recreation department, and a custodial /use of facility fee. County/Schools Collaboration Meeting (April 8, 2005) 4