Bayshore Neighborhood Association Members Background for Meeting at Botanical Garden
June 15th, 2005 at 7pm
On Thursday, June 9th, the Scott Rakow Youth Center Advisory Committee had its monthly meeting, for which Adriana Miller received a phone message only a day earlier from Ronni Singer, Assistant City Manager, to advise we might want to attend because further plans for the Youth Center would be discussed. Present were members of the Board, Bob Middaugh, Assst City Mgr, Jorge Chartrand, Assistant Director Capital Improvement Projects Office, Kevin Smith, Director of Parks & Recreation, Ellen Vargas, Director of the Youth Center with proposed Enhancements & Replacements & Renewals for YC, using 'some money left' from the previous allotment Bond money from about 1996 and money 'found' to implement the rest. Just focusing on the following items:
a) Under "l. User Enhancements" - there is an item "New play field on West side of facility"­ - $90,000
b) Under "II. Facility Enhancements" - there is an item "Expand parking lot to
approximately double the size, 46 additional spaces"
Re a Showing an aerial photo of the Par3 without any markings, they pointed at Hole #2 not knowing exactly how much they would take and putting a fence around it. When it was pointed out that the City has never lived up to fulfilling its share of the Settlement Agreement between it and the Citizens for Greenspace, whose rights have now passed to the Bayshore Homeowners Association [Agreement result of lawsuit necessitated by the City illegally doling out public-use Par 3 land to a private religious institution], i. e. restoring and reconfiguring the Par 3 with the money the City got for that Par 3 land, Bob Middaugh said the Settlement Agreement did not matter. We are to believe they have already set Arthur Hill who redid the Bayshore Golf Course to redo the Par3. City proposes to take Hole 2, and in return would add to the Par3 by reconfiguring where the clubhouse was and adding the triangle West of Prairie to it. They contend that intersection is 'very dangerous' but the neighbors who use it 24/7 haven't noticed any accidents .... No traffic study has been done of course...
Re b) Using the aerial photo, they pointed into the green of Hole#2 to add the parking spaces, however, we think they should be set parallel to the street between Mikveh and Hebrew Academy.
 
As Citizens for Greenspace we obtained the Settlement Agreement. Over the past many,many
years we have been to the City Commission, Youth Center and Golf Advisory Board Meetings, met separately with the Mayor and each Commissioner (all of whom said they understood and would respect that our neighborhood doesn't want the Par3 touched, only restored), countless times with always the following refrain:
- Every neighborhood has its park - THIS IS OUR PARK, A GOLF COURSE FOR ALL AGES AND A YOUTH CENTER
- All other parks have been fixed up, the City has let ours run down so they think they can say nobody uses it - it does not make money. But it is always busily used, even and especially with new (& expensive) Bayshore facility open.
- We did not want the ice skating rink, it is there - HOW MUCH MONEY DID IT COST TO BUILD, DOES IT COST TO RUN THAT (how much $$s does it make)! It is always semi deserted.
- We did want the pool in the YTH Ctr fixed up and a wading pool added, we did not get it but that is exactly what the Youth Center actually needs, according to Youth Center Staff. However, this is not in budget
- We think YC should be utilized (economically correct too) in the daytime for adults, before kids get in, for yoga, computer lessons, swimming, you name it.
- Each park has a designation: Flamingo tennis, swimming; Polo tennis, basketball; N. Shore all but swimming; Normandy swimming, etc. YC always was and is an indoor facility, it is for ice skating, bowling, basket ball, swimming, gymnastics. Outdoor use: golf lessons for the kids, the pro was extremely busy until they took him away.
WHAT DO WE WANT/ NEED???: