City recreation opportunities pay their own way

When Erik Bruner took over as recreation coordinator for the Whitefish Parks and Recreation Department in July 2008, the department was actively looking for a way to develop more opportunities for elementary school children in Whitefish.

“There were no regularly scheduled recreational activities for this age group that encompassed the entire summer vacation, nor were there any after-school activities that were offered on a Monday-through-Friday basis,” parks and recreation director Karl Cozad said.

In the two years since he came over from the Kalispell parks and recreation department, Bruner focused his efforts on developing youth recreation programs. In addition to creating two new programs, the Stumptown Summer Day Camp and the Stumptown School Days after-school program, he also two other programs, the adult and the youth recreation programs.

Bruner was also successful in making the programs financially self-sustaining. All told, the four recreation programs took in $113,936 in the past fiscal year and spent $79,037 on staff and other expenses, leaving $34,900 for his salary. The programs also benefit from scholarship support and direct financial contributions, Cozad noted.

Bruner, however, is moving on — he gave the city notice on Oct. 19. With a bachelor’s in recreation management, Bruner said he’s headed to Denver for additional certification.

“I loved the job here,” he told the Pilot, “but I want to pursue other career interests.”

Bruner’s decision leaves city management in a quandary because the Whitefish City Council approved a hiring freeze as part of its 2010 budget. City manager Chuck Stearns addressed the issue during the Nov. 1 city council meeting.

“Given the report that this position is mostly paid for by recreation programs, and the public and council support of the summer and after-school programs, these programs would not operate without a replacement,” Stearns said.

The summer day camp program offers a safe environment with social interaction, Bruner said, and is a much better alternative to “latch-key kids.” Based out of the Stumptown Ice Den on Monday through Friday, the program employs about eight seasonal staff at a 1-to-8 staff-to-child ratio.

The program logged a total of 1,718 participants in its first year, which lasted nine weeks and averaged 39 kids per day. The camp expanded to 11 weeks this year and grew to 2,484 daily campers and an average daily attendance of 46 kids. The summer camp program took in $66,356 this year.

Expenses this year included $14,460 for contract services, much of which goes to transportation on twice-weekly field trips to places like Glacier National Park, Whitefish Mountain Resort and Big Sky Waterslides. The kids also walk to City Beach, The Wave and downtown to Stumptown Art Studio and the Sawbuck Do Jang martial arts studio.

Also in its second year, the after-school recreation program has grown from an average of nine children a day to 16. The program operated as a partnership with Muldown Elementary School in its first year and ran every day that school was in session. The program continued on early-release days and full-day during spring break week, when a total of 126 children participated this year.

One out of six children at Muldown enrolled in the after-school program in its first year, with 1,656 participants. Activities were held at the Muldown elementary School gym and multipurpose room. The program took in $14,227 that year and employed two staff members. Attendance has grown 50 percent this fall to about 14-15 children per day.

The adult recreation program includes softball, co-rec soccer, ultimate Frisbee and men’s soccer and took in $15,268 through September this year. The biggest activity by far is the softball program, with 13 teams and 195 players in two divisions. The co-rec and men’s soccer programs each had five teams and about 90 players. The fledgling ultimate Frisbee program posted about 30 players.

The youth recreation program offers seven activities for young boys and girls through the year and took in $18,086 in the last fiscal year. Activities include basketball at the Armory and Muldown Elementary School gyms for grades K-2 and 3-4, a skateboard camp, Big Kids soccer and sports camps, a Skyhawks soccer camp and a youth tennis program. A total of 115 kids played youth basketball, another 36 enrolled in the skateboard camp and 115 enrolled in the tennis camp.

For more information about the recreation department, call 863-2470 or 863-2471 or visit online at www.whitefish.govoffice.com.