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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-08-21; Parks & Recreation Commission; 800-1; Commissioners ReportPARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION -AGENDA BILL AB# 800-1 RECOMMENDED ACTION : STAFF: BETTIN COMMISSIONER’S REPORT MTG. DATE: 8/21/00 TITLE : INFO ACTION Accept and file ITEM EXPLANATION : Attached is the Commissioner’s Report for August 2000 EXHIBITS: 1. Commissioners Report - August 2000 i 7 August 21 , 2000 TO: PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION FROM: Recreation Supervisor I COMMISSIONER’S REPORT FOR AUGUST 2000 SPECIAL EVENTS Youth Day Camp is just about over for the summer. In total the Youth Day Camp program for the summer was host to 1 , 120 children. Each child experienced the best in recreational activities the City of Carlsbad has to offer. In the nine weeks of camp, the children at- tended 23 field trips, had six guest speakers, ate 2000 bags of popcorn, and drank 290 gal- lons of sports drink, all of which created millions of memories for participants. The Recrea- tion Department would like to thank the Police Department, the Helen Alleman Youth Cen- ter, and the Cole Library staff for their assistance in this summer’s program. The new addition to the Youth Day Camp program was “Parent Night”. Parent Night was created to give the parents of our program participants the experience of being at camp themselves. Each Thursday night staff invited parents of campers to play in some of our group games, work on arts and crafts with their child, and enjoy the pizza party at the end of the night. On average, staff was host to 200 parents and campers. The parents loved the new addition to the Youth Day Camp program and staff is currently looking into ways of expanding this concept into our Stay n’ Play after school program. The Stay n’ Play program will begin on September 19th at Jefferson and Buena Vista Ele- mentary Schools. Staff is currently planning this year’s activities around our Stay n’ Play motto “Today’s students, Tomorrow’s Leaders”. On August 26, 2000, the lSt Annual Family Night in the Park will be held at Calavera Hills Community Park. The night will be filled with family entertainment, arts and crafts, a 30- foot rock-climbing wall, and old fashion barbeque and pancake breakfast. Staff anticipates nearly 500 people to partake in this family sleepover. YOUTH SPORTS The Youth Sports section welcomes Lori Swenck as its new Recreation Supervisor. Lori comes to us from the community of Idyllwild, where she served as the Recreation Director. Prior to that position, Lori worked for the City of Palm Springs Recreation Department. Lori has an outstanding background and will be an excellent addition to the Carlsbad Recrea- tion Team. Lori is also familiar with the City and our Department’s programs because she worked for the Recreation Department for a number of years during the early 90’s as a part time staff person in the Youth Sports Department. Lori and staff have already begun preparing for the upcoming Youth Basketball season. Registration begins in September and evaluations will take place in October. As always, we are looking for interested volunteers to coach! 010 I EXHIBIT I - Staff has been on the go with over 30 contract sports camps. Attendance is great and the kids are having a wonderful summer! A sampling of our camps includes Dance, Basket- ‘ ball, Body Boarding, Water Sports, Volleyball, La Crosse and many more. - HARDING CENTER-FACILITIES SECTION Wow, What a month! July has been an extremely active month over at the Harding Cen- ter. The facility and ballfield staff has been incredibly busy. It seems like Christmas in July! To begin with, the staff did a fantastic job assistin.g in the Recreation Department’s largest annual event, the Carlsbad Triathlon. The Transition area was once again assigned, and every athlete came through this area. There were 1,000 participants in the Triathlon this year. Next, the ballfield staff added a combined weight of 1 15 tons of infield soil to Stagecoach, Calavera, Chase, and Brierly infields. All the fields look great and are ready for the Adult Softball Season that begins in August. Staff also assisted the Public Works Department and the Historical Society by helping with a little spring-cleaning at the Magee Barn. The staff from the Harding Center was able to clean out the entire barn in four days, thus helping the Historical Society in their efforts re- store the Barn to its original state. - Next, Brian O’Grady assisted the City Manager’s Office as they celebrated Police Chief Bob Vales’ final staff meeting and luncheon. Brian ran last-minute errands, located a donut shop that would bake a four-foot maple bar, one of Chief Vales’ mainstays, as well as set- ting up the Safety Center Conference facility for the Chiefs luncheon. Needless to say, Brian’s efforts were successful and the Police Chief was surprised. From all of us in the Recreation Department, “Congratulations to Chief Vales!’’ Finally, with the Senior Center’s auditorium floor is finally having some much-needed re- pairs and the Harding Center staff has again come to the rescue. The Harding Center will be host to three classes of the Senior Center over the next three months; these classes include Bridge, Country Line Dancing, and Low Impact Aerobics. No problem, we are happy to help. Teamwork is what its all about! Good job Harding Center staff! AQUATICS Have you ever heard the old joke, “How many City of Carlsbad Aquatics personnel does it take to run phone-in swim lesson registrations?” No? You’ve never heard that one? Well don’t feel too badly, after all I just this moment made it up. Of course, if this really had been an old joke (which in time it will be), the punch line would simply be “twenty-three”. People would laugh in that strained chuckle reserved for filling the uncomfortable pause after a lame attempt at humor, but then they would get to thinking, “Hey, maybe this guy is serious.” The Aquatics staff did have quite the boiler room operation going on July lS‘ and Zd from 8:OO am to 5:OO pm. There were 492 swim lesson spots offered to Carlsbad resi- dents, and over 90% of those spots were filled before the smoke cleared. The Aquatics 2 c section was wise to enlist the help of Gian Lauro in securing the Emergency Operations Center at the Safety Center. Housed in room number 3, this space gave staff access to 10 separate phone lines. Thanks to Lee Rautenkranz (Information Technology), every one of those phones rang mercilessly for hours. Aquatics had staff answering every phone, filling out hundreds of waivers and shuttling mounds of paperwork down to the Harding Center for data entry into the CLASS registration system (the computer system at the Swim Com- plex was up to its usual tricks). Meanwhile, back at the Swim Complex, another group of dedicated, unsung Aquatics heroes and heroines were running the usual extensive week- end programs. All in all, an impressive feat for a mere 23 people!” - The Aquatics Supervisor is on the move!’ Normally this statement would refer to a lunch- time run down to Tamarack with a kayak, but not this time. Carl Pope is moving into office space (trailer space?) left vacant during the Recreation Administration’s exodus to City Hall. While Carl will still be a regular sighting over at the Swim Complex, the new digs will give him a much needed opportunity to embrace his workload in relative peace. Plans for an “open house” will be passed along as they develop. If you do visit, take a moment to admire the remarkable simulated wood grain paneling on the inside of the front door! The weekend of August 12* and 13, 2000 the Aquatics staff will host two spectator-friendly events. North Coast Aquatics will hold a novice swim meet at the Carlsbad Swim Complex on Sunday. This event promises to provide a wonderful opportunity for curious parents and youth to get a taste of life on a swim team, separated by age groups. On Saturday, we switch age group gears and welcome both participants and spectators of the annual Mas- ters Springboard Diving Meet. Spectator admission is always free, but please keep in mind the first three rows are in the splash zone; so if you are the type of person who only watches these events for the belly flops, don’t waste your time.. . these people are good! - DAYTRIPPERS Due to the overwhelming demand and popularity of the Daytrippers “Lion King” trip to the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, another date has been added. The first trip to the event, which is scheduled for October 2000, sold out in just two weeks. Our patrons will be glad to hear that a second trip has been scheduled! SENIORS In and Around ‘Your Carlsbad Senior Center‘ One of the most touching and inspirational speakers the Senior Center has presented in years, Judy Urman, spoke of her experience during the Holocaust. Ms. Urman addressed a large audience on July 13, and also shared memorabilia, some of which were documents issued by Hitler. A reporter and photographer from the North County Times, who also at- tended the speech, published an article and photograph the next day. This was an unfor- gettable seminar. After displaying this artist’s delightful abstract artwork in the hallway gallery for nearly two months, the Senior Center presented Jenik Cook to a crowd of art lovers on July 18. The artist outlined her beginnings in the Middle East, to her present life in the San Fernando Valley and responded to questions from those in attendance. What an inspiring speech!!! - 012 3 The 12* annual Ice Cream Social on July 23, was a big hit. ..as was expected. The 32 gal- - lons of ice cream, donated by the Rite Aid store on Tamarack, elicited "oohs" and "ahhs" from the crowd of nearly 200. The Rumble Seat Rascals provided the entertainment and many people stayed simply to hear the band ... they were superb. As always, the staff and those bighearted volunteers from the Senior Center guaranteed that the afternoon event was a success! Our seniors cruised through Canada, New England and Singapore on July 25, as Anny Wright from Ace of Travel brought exciting videos of different cruises ... and even a "behind the scenes" peek. The audience typically enjoys these "trips" and Anny always provides refreshments and prizes. This type of presentation is a favorite! June 2, we spent a day sightseeing and antique shopping in Temecula. We then spent the afternoon at Thornton Winery for a tour, wine tasting and a very special luncheon. Pechanga Casino was in store for 50 seniors on June 8. Nobody won big, but the bingo players were in rare form. The buffet lunch is always a popular one. On June 10, we treated ourselves to a very special day. We did the picnic in the park and viewed the 'Full Monty'. Now that's entertainment! The Del Mar Fair and the Temptations concert was a blast July 26*. We saw the exhibits, ate, viewed the special events for the day, ate, saw the beautiful flower exhibits, ate and then saw the concert in the evening. - June 29*, Camelot at the Welk Resort proved to be a wonderful day, filled with their scrumptious buffet, the neat little shops and of course the theater performance finale. The Coronado harbor Excursion (a two hour narrated cruise), Seaport Village for lunch and shopping was on the calendar for Thursday, July 13. Saturday evening, July 15", we were entertained at Del Mar for the Festival Pops Concert. What an evening.. . the theme was 'Storm The Bastille' and, indeed they did-complete with cannons and fireworks! The La Jolla Playhouse, Tuesday, July 25", and an evening performance of 'Sheridan'. We had mixed reviews of this play, as this was a premier event at the playhouse and no one had seen or heard of this writer from the days of Mad King George. 'Festival of the Arts-Pageant of the Masters' was our special treat on Monday evening, July 31. What a spectacular evening. Our seats were superb, and the evening proved to be a delightful success. 013 4 STAGECOACH COMMUNITY PARK This summer there are twenty-two week-long youth soccer clinics and twenty-one sports camps being held on the Stagecoach ball fields. A portion of the California State Games is being held on the fields August 15* and 16*. The La Costa 35 Athletic Club has almost completed their softball playoffs for this year. During July there were twenty-five picnic reservations at Stagecoach. In the Community Center, youth camps were offered for Cooking (3), Science (2), Peewee Voyagers, and Cheernastics. POINSE7TIA PARK The Arts Office held a TGIF Jazz concert, with Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lick- ers, on July 28, and the Bill Magee Blues Band is scheduled to perform in August. There were three youth baseball camps and a Carlsbad Youth Baseball organization tournament on the ball fields. On August 19 and 20 a special event," Taste of North County", will be at the park. ENRICHMENT CLASSES This summer has proven to be one of the busiest yet for our area. Approximately 350 kids took advantage of 18 camps offered through our Enrichment Class program. All were filled to the maximum with the exception of two. The staffs favorite camp, year after year is ,- without a doubt the Cooking camp. Staff has appointed themselves as the unofficial taste testers for all of the scrumptious goodies that are created every day. The consensus is al- ways a "thumbs up!" We will be offering some new exciting classes this fall. With all of the new homes being built in Carlsbad that will be needing landscaping, the new class "Gardening and Landscap- ing with California Native Plants" should prove to be very popular. Besides enabling you to simplify your life by letting Mother Nature tend your landscaping, you are also restoring the environment. Another area that we are also placing more focus on is in the Arts. We will be introducing several classes for young children, teenagers and adults. One of our Art series will include a parenuchild class, providing the opportunity for a family to spend some valuable time to- gether. We look forward to our new fall session being just as busy as summer. CALAVEM HILLS PARK Traditionally, attendance numbers for the month of July are low because most of the sports leagues take their breaks at this time. Also, families are on summer vacations or taking advantage of our wonderful beaches. However, even with these factors considered, sum- I mer attendance was up compared to July 1999 by almost 1,000 participants, with a total of 10,591 patrons. Facility rental revenue was up with a total of $4,272.66 collected. 5 The month of August will see an increase in attendance with the sports leagues using the our Adult Sports programs have begun. Calavera Hills gymnasium will host an 1 1-day yoga seminar put on by the Astanga Yoga Center of Encinitas at the end of the month. The staff is gearing up for fall registration, which began August 9* for mail-ins. ” facility. Pop Warner Football, Carlsbad Soccer Club, Carlsbad Softball Association, and ADULT SPORTS The Adult Sports began its community Softball and Basketball registration. Softball regis- tration ended August 4, 2000 and Basketball registration ends August 18, 2000. We ex- pect to fill all leagues and may have to turn away teams due to the number of teams that are responding. Games will begin during the week of the August 28, 2000. The 3-on-3 Seaside Slam Basketball Tournament held during Triathlon Weekend was a success and had positive feedback from the participants and spectators. We plan to host a series of 3-on-3 tournaments throughout the City as the demand grows to host these tournaments. I would like to thank all the Adult Sports staff for doing an excellent job dur- ing Triathlon Weekend. Without our staffs support, this magnificent event would not have been possible. THANKS AGAIN TO ONE AND ALL! ROBIN BETTIN _- c: Recreation Director City Manager Assistant City Manager All Department Heads Of5 6