Candidate for
Director; Boulder Creek Recreation and Park District; 4 Year Term

My political philosophy is fairly easy to summarize. There will always be political and philosophical differences within any normal community. At their heart, however, any political system, be it conservative or liberal, green, libertarian, or something in between, places a value on community, cooperation, and mutual respect. For our District to succeed in its mission of providing recreational venues and activities for the community, we have to realize that our political differences, while important, are not relevant to the running of a Recreation District, while our sense of community and our ability to cooperate bears on this District directly. We need to be able to work together for the good of the community and our District. There are two areas that this impacts directly.

The first is community participation. As a community, our greatest resource is each other. There is a vast wealth of talent and creativity in our town, and it would be wonderful to be able to tap some of that energy for the good of the District. Unfortunately, there has been so much public acrimony and community divisiveness in District meetings that many people I speak to regard the District itself as a bad joke. We need to prove to the public that we can work together, that we value community input, and that we respect each other. Then we can begin slowly to attract interested people back to volunteer.

The second area is funding. Our District has some limited money for capital improvements, but lacks ongoing yearly budget funding. As a result, it's difficult to maintain facilities or support programs. I don't think that any significant amount of money can be raised within the District by raising fees again. I would be more interested in the possibility of exploring outside sources of money, mostly from grants. Again, community support is necessary. Few are willing to donate time or money to a District that can't function well due to divisiveness. If community efforts to secure grants fail, we might consider hiring someone whose expertise is finding grant money.

Another issue facing our District is the deterioration in the recreation field known as Garrahan Park. This field was built about twelve years ago by filling in a boggy area. Over the years, the field has settled significantly, and no longer drains well. The sprinkler system needs to be redesigned, and the turf has suffered a good deal of damage. Garrahan is one of the three properties that the District actually owns, the other two being Junction Park, refurbished eight years ago, and the Dam. It is a major part of the District's stewardship. I think we need to explore whatever measures are needed to bring this field back to health, whether that be grading, seeding, sodding, or some combination of those methods.