Recreation Centers

The cash-starved Department of Recreation and Parks has money to adequately operate only half of the 86 recreation centers it now runs, says a consultant's report being reviewed by the city.As a result, the city should consider turning control of many centers over to private organizations or shutting some entirely, says the report, which has the tentative endorsement of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke."We have to shrink the number of buildings we're responsible for to be able to do a sound job of running them," Laura Scott Perry, president of the city's Board of Recreation and Parks, said yesterday.

Mayor Martin O'Malley announced yesterday that he would extend the evening hours at 20 city recreation centers in an effort to keep teen-agers off the street and out of trouble. During a news conference at Tench Tilghman Recreation Center at 600 N. Patterson Park Ave., O'Malley and acting parks Director Kimberley Amprey said the selected centers would close at 10 p.m., instead of 6 p.m. or 8 p.m. The northern district will have six sites, the central district will have nine, and the southern district will have five.

Baltimore County children would learn and play in refurbished schools and in new recreation centers -- and their parents would spend less time stuck in traffic -- if county officials have their way in the General Assembly session.In unveiling the county's 1999 legislative agenda yesterday, County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger called for legislators to approve nearly $37 million for construction and maintenance of schools, $600,000 for two Police Athletic League recreation centers in northwest Baltimore County and more than $50 million for road improvements.

When rain falls, the lights flicker out in South Baltimore's small Solo Gibbs recreation center.So supervisor Geraldine Clifton is forced to do what she always does -- search for new light bulbs and try not to remember that she'll have to raise more money to pay for them."

Inside the Claremont Public Housing Recreation Center, a few young boys toss a soccer ball into a plastic milk crate tied on a wall. It's the closest they can come to playing basketball, since the court outside has a broken backboard, and the boys don't have a basketball anyway.Other children color on the back of construction paper that has already been used once or twice. A young girl says she wants new pink paper for her "best picture of all," but there is no new paper for her to use.At Claremont, there is hardly anything new. Nor is there enough of what is available.

In a move that changes the focus of recreation center programs for Baltimore's youth and elderly, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is handing over control of at least 10 recreation centers to city police officers this fall.The Oct. 1 changeover, to be announced today by Police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier, provoked parents and employees to question its effect in neighborhoods."I think it is one of the worst mistakes they can possibly make," said Tyrone Jordan, a volunteer at Robert C. Marshall Recreation Center in West Baltimore, which is to become a Police Athletic League (PAL)

Baltimore will use $1.5 million in state funds toward construction of a headquarters and other facilities for a parks advocacy group — money that could have shored up the city's recreation and parks department, decimated by cuts in a preliminary budget released by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake last week. The spending, approved by a city oversight panel on Wednesday, will help refurbish a dilapidated mansion near Druid Hill Park to serve as headquarters for the Parks and People Foundation, and construct an eco-friendly new building with classrooms and exhibit space.

Baltimore Recreation and Parks Department director Gregory Bayor's plan to allow community groups, businesses and public schools to run some of the city's 55 neighborhood rec centers sounds like a good idea — if it actually cuts costs and improves the quality of programs offered to children, families and seniors. If private and nonprofit groups can do a better job managing the centers than the city has, they should be given the chance. Given the history of ill-supported centers in the city and the success of such public-private ventures in Baltimore County, it certainly seems possible, though by no means assured.

The $4.3 million Arbutus branch of Baltimore County's library system is winning rave reviews from its youngest to oldest patrons after officially reopening at a new location. While her mother watched from a cozy window seat, Emily Riesett celebrated her fifth birthday Monday playing at cake-baking in the children's area of the Sulphur Spring Road library. "It is the only thing she wanted to do for her birthday," Karen Riesett said of her daughter. "We just love how family-friendly it is here.