Reimagine Recreation & Parks

Speaker 2 01:02

Sure. for the longest time, our agency was kind of behind the digital footprint. We were kind of stuck in the past. We've used the analogy here in our office that we, we were like blockbuster video where you had to, you know, go find a video not knowing what was there. People still consume movies at home, but if we told 'em they had to go drive to a store, they would look us a little crazy. So this was a way for us to bring products to the residents, whether that's a program, access to a facility, the ability to rent a pavilion, to reserve a, a field, or a facility for an bank. So this was our way of kind of modernizing the information out to the public from our agency.

Speaker 1 01:44

Okay. So how does it work?

Speaker 2 01:46

Sure. You can just go on, the user can go on and create an account. They can see all of the program offerings from the agency on the system. They can see all the available facilities. If they wanted to reserve it for a, a tournament in six months, they could look and see what sites are available. They create an account, they go on, they put in their request for either permit or you know, registration for a program. It's all done from home, from their computer on their timeline. They don't have to drive somewhere or pick up a phone and call between business hours to get this information. It's all readily available to the public. And it's just like any other registration portal you would use for a variety of things.

Speaker 1 02:25

Now, you said that you need to do people need to create an account to use it?

Speaker 2 02:30

Yes, they need to create an account that they would, you know, put all their information in on civic rec and then they can that information as will get tied to a permit or to a registration for a program.

Speaker 1 02:40

And how has feedback been so far?

Speaker 2 02:42

It's been pretty good. One of the first things we did this winter, we do a, a large number of boat permits for the Lock Raven Fishing Center. And in the past, people would drive up to our, our Farm park and Ag Center and wait in line in their cars to get into the office to fill out their paperwork and then get their permit. They were able to do it all online without leaving home. We got, you know, very good remarks back from the, the users that it was much easier to do than having someone to take time outta their day, drive to a site to do a permit. They were able to get their, their boating permits almost instantaneously off the system.

Speaker 3 03:18

I think we sold out too, like in record time. So because they were able to do it online versus having to, you know, come in like Bob said, wait on or wait in the, the long car park to get in, we were able to sell out in record time. I think also it's just really important to note that this is a one stop shop. The reason that we have this is so important because in previous iterations of program registration, the customer would have to go to different community sites independently to try to figure out what programs were offered in what communities. Now this is a one-stop shop. So all rec council programs, state council programs, as well as any resident that wants to permit an activity or outside user group, in addition to our programs, rec and parks programs are all in one place. So you can see who's offering basketball or baseball or dance or a special event all in one place. You can search by zip code, you can search by your community park, whatever filters you wanna use to figure out what's going on and is available for you to sign up for us.

Speaker 1 04:15

The, the county council recently approved the county executive's fiscal year 2025 budget, which includes over $6 million for rec and parks, a more than 30% increase. Can you explain why such a large increase is warranted?

Speaker 2 04:29

Sure. And first, it's really an investment in, in the agency and our team members and the work they've been doing here. Historically as an agency, we've been underfunded in comparison to other municipalities throughout the state and throughout the nation. When we started about six years ago, looking at this, we were averaging about $19 per capita investment in recreation. We're up to about $35 in the, the present budget that was just approved. The national average is $94. So the agency has been doing, and the staff in the agency have been doing a lot of work while being underfunded as an agency. And that's kind of placed a tremendous pressure on the team and pressure on the user groups to provide a lot of things that an agency should be providing. So, so it, it's warranted because we owe the residents, you know, a fully functioning recreational parks agency that follows best practices, that is innovative, that can offer the things that other municipalities offer that we just couldn't here because of the fund.

So we're extremely appreciative of the investment from the executive and the approval from the council because it begins the right size and the agency towards a, a fully functioning department to serve the rest of the team visitors.

Speaker 3 05:41

And hopefully everyone will be able to see an improvement in a park nearby them, such as basketball hoops or parking re striping or new playgrounds or gaga pits or all sorts of fun things.

Speaker 1 05:56

So peaking of facilities over the next few months, you're on track to open, not one, but two new recreation activity centers. What are these racks used for and and how do they benefit the communities they're in?

Speaker 3 06:07

Yeah. So we have currently we have nine different recreation activity centers. So with these two, we'll have 11 at all of our rec sites and our rack center specifically, there's afterschool programming. There's enrichment activities, stem afterschool homework help, things like that at all of our centers. So with the addition of the Middle River Rack and the Rosedale Rack, they will have those as well. However, at Middle River Rack, which I think the ribbon cutting is coming up in August, we're very excited for that. This space is designed inside and out with a tribute to G Glen l Martin. It's designed and it looks like an airport hanger, so it's pretty cool to see. The features inside the space all have little nods to air and space. So you'll walk down a hallway and there's gonna be fun, different historical moments in the air and space industry, if you will with Rosie the Riveter and a couple other, you know, important timeline features along that hallway.

And then the light fixtures also have airline or airplane propellers propel the propellers. Yes. so it's kind of got a, a lot of fun features throughout the building. So the programming will have some nods to space and air. However, most of the programming will be traditional with arts, crafts, sports games, community building, et cetera. The Rosedale Rack is really exciting. It's our first eSports center. So there's gonna be gaming rooms with computers set up for independent play, for homework help, for all sorts of different learning development, career building, all of those things in the space with the hopes that eventually we'll be able to offer tournaments. And both of these spaces, in addition to all of our rack centers are open to all. So that's kind of a new feature that we're really wanting to make community members aware of, that these spaces are meant to be community hubs with opportunities for anyone to come in and play games play basketball, interact with their community members, and just utilize the spaces for whatever needs they may have.

Speaker 1 08:05

What other capital projects do you all have in the works?

Speaker 2 08:08

Sure. well, just this week we opened the first ripkin sponsored field of Baltimore County in Essex, where we opened a synthetic turf field with new LED lights and, and viewing stands. So we're excited to do that. We have our first concrete skateboard coming online later this year. It'll be the first concrete ball we've built in over 50 years. We have one over in Landsdown. This will be one on the East side. This's gonna be located off of Hazelwood Avenue in Rosedale. We have a new passive park in Pikesville that'll be opening soon. We're designed for our first ever built from scratch disc golf course. That'll be up off of Route 40 at kind of northeast Baltimore County. And then later this year we'll finish construction Spare Point Park Project down on the study Old Bethlehem Steel.

And similar to the, the Rack Center we're doing, there is kind of knots, the historical pieces of, of that community, including like skylines of what the mill looked like. Some steel beam from that was, that was, you know, created on the mill. So as we build these new projects, we're also kind of paying mind at the community in which we build them. You know, so there's a, a touchstone a tie into to the residents there. And it feels, you know, it is like it's part of the community. 'cause We, we try to pay attention to the history and, and the aspects of that community. So tho those are some of the things. And we have like our first ever cricket pitch being built from scratch. It'll go in Northern Baltimore County. So just a lot of new things. We're doing the regular stuff too.

Like we're we're striving to hit 30 playgrounds a year in, in rebuild or redesign. We just did an inventory of all of our peers and boat ramps to do replacements where necessary. But some of these newer things like the cricket pitch, like the first ever disc golf are kind of exciting because we're, we're hearing from the residents on new needs of recreation that we weren't meeting. And to be able to have the funding to do these things is great. It, it marks about a $200 million increase in capital for recreational parks over the last six years.

Speaker 1 10:06

It is summer, which is peak record park season. I I, I presume. So what are some hidden gems or programs in Baltimore County that you feel may not get as much attention or don't get enough attention?

Speaker 3 10:17

Bill, I don't know if you've heard about pickleball, but pickleball <laugh> seems to be a, you know, a semi hidden gem, if you will. No, I'm just kidding. Everybody's heard about pickleball, <laugh>, everybody wants courts and access to pickleball. So shameless plug to go on and reserve your pickleball courts in civic rec, which you can do. But we've got lots of hidden gems all over the county. I think to the point of civic recs earlier kind of overview communities know what's in their communities, but if, you know, there hasn't been a, a, a way for a lot of the residents to see what's beyond them. So there's probably different hidden gems to different community members that, you know, we're encouraging to step outside, go view a, a new park go walk into a rack center, check out different hikes or, or an event coming up.

So a couple, a couple things that we have coming up. We have our screen on the Green Series, which is outdoor movies taking place. Just started last week beginning of July every Friday. I think we're having a different showing all over the county through the end of August. Holt Park is a hidden gem in my opinion. I had never been there, and I've lived in the county for 10 years, but it's beautiful. I would recommend a picnic there. I think there's the arts fest coming up in August would recommend people go check that out. And any hike at Cromwell Marshy Oregon Ridge or Lake Rowland is always a treat back a picnic. There's playgrounds, there's endless miles of hiking to be had. So those are a couple fun things.

Speaker 2 11:47

And then I'll just do an additional shameless plug. But we also, this year developed a park finder application. So if you go online to our webpage, you can find the Park park Finder application, and then you can search all of our park databases for amenities. If you're looking for a pickleball court, which no one ever does <laugh> it will list them all out for you in locations. The court's point there, there are hidden gems in all the communities that often the residents aren't even aware of. So the park finder application on our website lets you look for a boat ramp or a pier or a pavilion and show you all the parks within the system that meet what you want to do. So there's, there's, you know, not just the civic rec system that we're using to get for programs and reservation capability, but the Park finder app allows us to also then get all of our amenity information out to the public.

Speaker 3 12:37

And since you mentioned boat ramps, so we do have a couple water facing facilities with different amenities that a lot of people do not know about. So we have standup paddleboard renting, we have kayak rentals, we have boat rentals at two of our beaches, Miami Beach and Rocky Point Park, as well as boat rentals and kayak rentals at the Lock Raven Fishing Center. So anybody can show up during our open hours and make use of the water access stay cool and, you know, choose to rent a, a boat or a, a paddleboard if they want.

Speaker 2 13:08

One event we want to mention is July 20th at Oregon Ridge Park. We are doing a celebration this year is our Agency's 75th anniversary. So we've invited like past staff and past volunteers to all come out to Oregon Ridge Park on July 20th to kind of celebrate this, this amazing agency. Our our staff are volunteers, the, the people we've impacted over the years. So that's kind of a neat event for us is to, to highlight the agency and the work that all the staff have done here in this 75th year celebration.

Speaker 3 13:37

And in addition to that fun party on July 23, you can't make it, but you wanna keep the party going. We have about 90 open positions that we'll be hiring for over the next couple months. So we've got lots of positions from activity coordinators to community supervisors, to marketing specialists to community engagement. There's really gonna be something for everybody. So if you're interested in a part-time job, a full-time job, a career position, we're gonna have something for everybody. So stay tuned for all of those fun opportunities on our website page. And in addition to that, for those that aren't looking for a job but wanna keep the party going our Facebook page is also having fun activities every week to celebrate our 75th anniversary as well. So, you know, you can go on every Wednesday and, and try to guess where Parker is. So there's fun trivia going on on our Facebook page, which is Bolt Co Rec and Parks all spelled out. And we'd love some, some engagement on that page where we not only have trivia, but we post our fun events new programs that are coming up, such as our new football clinic that's, that's also coming up in the fall.

And as well as any other updates, weather related access, civic rec details and more. So check us out.

Speaker 1 14:50

Thank you both for joining us and thanks for listening to this episode of the County. This episode was produced with help from the Baltimore County Public Library Media Services. Tune in next time.