Closure hours for rec centers revised - and it's worse

Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Denver Parks and Recreation says 11 rec centers will be open to the public 3,226 fewer hours next year - 646 more hours than reported in Mayor John Hickenlooper's 2008 budget proposal last week.

"We made a mistake," Daniel Betts, deputy manager of recreation facility services, said Wednesday. "This is not uncommon. There are several corrections that we need to make in the budget book around either numbers or just language."

At least one city official wasn't too happy with the error.

"I'm more disappointed, obviously, now than I was before," Councilman Doug Linkhart said.

Parks and rec officials are scheduled to meet with council members at noon today for a budget briefing. Specifics about the number of hours to be cut at each center will be discussed, but Linkhart said the Globeville center would be hardest hit.

He said some of his colleagues are upset about the proposed reductions, too.

"Just the notion of cutting rec center hours when we're trying to do more things for kids and sell a bond issue that includes rec centers," he said, referring to one of nine infrastructure-related ballot issues that voters will consider this fall.

Betts said the Parks and Recreation Department has been analyzing rec center hours for more than a year to determine when they're used and not used.

"The reality is that I was going to change these hours whether we had to offer up something in the budget or not," he said.

"It just doesn't make sense to me that you can go to a rec center during the day at 10 o'clock and you have staff there, but you don't have bodies in the building that we're serving," he said. "That is just not serving the community."

Linkhart said he appreciates the work and "the wisdom" of analyzing rec center usage.

"But what I'd like to see is a balance, so that we don't cut rec center hours systemwide," he said. "They should find places to add hours if they're going to cut hours."

chacond@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5099