Albert Lea playparks program has new times
Published 8:53 am Friday, April 10, 2009
Members of the Albert Lea Parks and Recreation Department have made some changes to how the playparks program will run this summer after reviewing the results of a recent survey designed to gauge interest in the program.
The survey asked how satisfied people are with the program, how people would support a restructuring of the program and its hours, and if people would be willing to pay a fee for their children to attend.
Almost 100 people completed the survey, which was available on the city’s Web site.
Jenny Davis, recreation program supervisor in the Parks and Recreation Department, said the department sought feedback through the survey to see if there would be a way the program could save money. There’s also been a decline in recent years in the amount of children that have been using the playparks, she said.
After reviewing the results of the survey, the department’s members decided there will be seven playparks open this summer on Mondays through Thursdays from 1 to 8 p.m., Davis said. Playparks will be staffed with one park leader at a time. Fridays will still be event days, though the playparks buildings will be closed.
Originally, nine of Albert Lea’s parks were considered playparks, but in the past few summers there had only been five playparks open. Each park was staffed by two park leaders, she said. The parks were open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the park leaders would participate in daily activities with the children who come. On Fridays there would be special events.
Davis said how the playparks will be run this summer will be similar to the staffing at the warming houses, though there will still be many activities. Mondays will be craft days and Thursdays will be water days, for example.
“There’s a lot of support for the playparks,” she said. “People love them.”
She said the majority of comments received in the survey were supportive.
When asked how satisfied people are with the playparks program, about 30 percent responded they are very satisfied, about 40 percent responded they are satisfied, about 13 percent said they are unsatisfied and about 6 percent said they are very unsatisfied. About 10 percent said the question was not applicable to them.
Forty-seven percent of respondents said they are satisfied with playparks staff, while 42 percent said they are satisfied with the dates and times the playparks programs are offered.
When asked if people would support a restructuring of the program and its hours — to be open Monday through Friday from noon to 8 p.m. with one supervisor per building — 71 percent of respondents said they would support the changes.
Lastly, when people were asked if they’d be willing to pay a fee for their children to attend the playparks program, about 44 percent said they would not be willing to pay a fee, about 28 percent said they would be willing to pay a daily fee for attendance, about 14 percent said they would be willing to pay a weekly fee and about 14 percent said they would be willing to pay a fee for the entire summer.
Davis said after seeing the number of people who did not support a fee in the survey, the department’s members decided there will not be a fee charged this summer for children to participate in the playparks program.
It would also be difficult to police who has paid the fee and who hasn’t.
“We do not have totally enclosed facilities and unless the park leaders were very familiar with the kids, they might not know who has paid or not,” she said. Usually money or fees would be handled at City Arena.
In years past, the Parks and Recreation Department decided to charge a minimal fee, and it did not go over well, Davis said.