Parks And Recreation

At noon yesterday, Robert Marshall, a 52-year-old chess regular at City Hall plaza, gazed at the young trees and flowers swaying in the breeze, the sandbox and gazebo full of children and the jazz ensemble from Winston Middle School attracting a crowd. "I'm shocked and impressed to see people congregate," Marshall said as he waited to play a match. "It's a shame it's not like this all the time." The temporary garden park, created in the War Memorial plaza, was a fleeting vision designed for a parks and recreation rally led by Mayor Martin O'Malley.

The director of parks and recreation in Portland, Ore., challenged Baltimore's City Hall yesterday: "If Mayor Martin O'Malley wants a great city, he's got to have great parks." Charles Jordan, the Oregon official who is described by some as a "spiritual leader" of a new urban parks movement, was the keynote speaker at a four-day convention of park advocates and experts in Baltimore. Officials from Baltimore and several other cities, including New York, Boston and Pittsburgh, hope to encourage a new way of looking at parks as critical to a city's well-being.

LEADERSHIP ANNE Arundel and the county Department of Parks and Recreation have combined to offer pupils in the after-school program at Park Elementary hands-on arts experiences. The leadership organization has arranged for artists to perform in the afternoon program operated by Parks and Recreation. After the show, the artists teach the children how to do the same performance. "They are so excited to have hands-on with the arts," said Emily Tomasini, teen-program coordinator at Parks and Recreation.

Oscar Baker remembers when Wildwood Park was the center of Mount Airy's social events: a home for carnivals, concerts, prayer sessions and political rallies.Baker and other longtime residents hope that the fun will return to the neighborhood park. They are encouraged by talk that town officials are looking into buying a gazebo for the park, which has been quiet for almost 50 years.The town Parks and Recreation Committee is mulling the purchase of a 20-foot-wide gazebo for the tree-lined site, and neighbors have begun talking about holding concerts and picnics on the patchy grass and red-dirt grounds.

NEXT SUNDAY, a performance by the Naval Academy Concert Band and an "All-American Picnic" will bring the Concerts in the Park summer series to a close.The picnic, sponsored by the Linthicum-Shipley Improvement Association, begins at 5 p.m. at Linthicum Park on Benton Avenue. Both are free.Parking is available on the Linthicum Elementary School lot adjacent to the park.Blankets or lawn chairs are needed for seating. If it rains, the concert and picnic will be canceled.Today's concert is the Crabtowne Big Band playing music from the Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller and Count Basie era. It starts at 6 p.m.Flea market and historyThe Ann Arrundell County Historical Society will hold a flea market from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept.

The Mount Airy Town Council has unanimously hired a West Virginia carpenter to build ramps for a new skateboard park, which will be visible from Route 27.The site at Watkins Park has been graded and asphalted. All that was left to do was hire a contractor to build 10 ramps inside the 14,400-square-foot park -- which the Town Council did Monday at its monthly meeting.James Presley of James Service of Harpers Ferry has never built ramps for a public park, but his bid of $69,495 was much lower than three other bidders.

WHAT IS IT about public parks that makes them such an easy mark for budget cuts? These places of respite and recreation have a broad constituency. Yet most parks and recreation users don't visit frequently, which might explain why they fail to fight for them like they do for a school.Area recreation councils are left to provide the only political influence to scrap for government funding -- and are typically told to raise their fees if they want more money.Carroll County's decision to slash spending on parkland acquisition and construction in the next two years, after earlier abolishing its parks department, should provoke citizens to demand more resources for these amenities.

The first wave of layoffs has hit the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, where 52 workers ranging from janitors to administrators were given two weeks' notice Friday.The layoffs are the first in the city's plans to eliminate 575 positions to break even in next year's $1.8 billion budget. About 260 of the positions have been eliminated through retirements or voluntary departures, city budget officials said. But that leaves 315 more slots that need to be cut before the city budget is adopted by July 1.Baltimore faces $153 million in budget deficits over the next four years.

A capacity crowd of Baltimore residents filled the balcony of City Council chambers yesterday to protest a proposed $2.9 million cut for the parks and recreation department.Over three years, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has cut $15 million from the department's budget, resulting in the closing of 18 recreation centers. At the same time, the city has started 27 Police Athletic League centers.Douglas B. Brady Jr., who retired three years ago after working 34 years for parks and recreation, complained that the PAL centers serve only those age 7 to 15. The proposed recreation cuts will affect senior citizens and tiny tots, Brady said.

The cost of swimming in Baltimore pools this summer, renting city facilities and playing in city basketball leagues will increase to help cover $2.9 million in budget cuts to the city recreation department.The increases is expected to bring an additional $60,000 to city coffers and are considered the first of many budget actions to affect residents as the city wrestles with a $153 million deficit over the next four years.Among the increases approved by the city Board of Estimates yesterday are:An increase from 75 cents to $1 for admission to neighborhood pools and a rise of $1 to $1.50 for park pools.