AURORA | After years of struggling to replace or improve the city’s decades-old recreation centers, city staff are looking at new ways of funding those improvements for residents of Colorado’s third-largest city.
On Aug. 28 at a Northwest Aurora Coalition meeting, Aurora’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Director Tom Barrett unveiled a $9-million expansion for the 44-year-old Moorhead Recreation Center in north Aurora. The expansion would provide the center with a new full-size gymnasium, a second-level jogging track, a cardio room, a teen center and an enclosure for its outdoor pool. The center would increase from 5,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet and would become the second full-service recreation center in the city following Beck Recreation Center.
Nearly $7 million comes from lottery revenue allocated to the city. An additional $1 million comes from seed money allotted by the city council to Moorhead as part of last year’s budget to attract a private investor to the project.
“We thought if we’re going to get this done, we need to do something ourselves,” said Byron Fanning, manager of the department’s business services. He said the department decided this year it made more sense to put all of its efforts into one project rather than scatter money across different projects that never get fully funded.
In 2011, Aurora voters rejected a $113 million bond measure to expand Moorhead and build three additional rec centers. The city has five recreation centers.
Sherri-Jo Stowell, a spokeswoman for the city’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space department said the failed measure not only forced the department to re-examine how to pay for improvements, it also completely shook up their outreach strategy.
“That was a resounding wakeup call from citizenry. They weren’t feeling connected to what we do,” she said.
Stowell said the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space staff has since directed its efforts toward community outreach.
Stowell said the renovations to the nearly 60-year-old Del Mar Park Pool in north Aurora that transformed it into a much-welcomed water spray park in 2014 came directly out of conversations with Aurora residents.
“In Del Mar, we reached out and had meetings in the park. We offered daycare, food and had a Spanish translator at the meetings. We significantly reached out to those folks to say we really wanted them to give us input,” she said.
This year was also the first time city staff participated in a weekly “Summer in The City” event that was held at Del Mar, where staff brought games and inflatable toys for families and children to play with.
“Staff members interacted with the public in a whole new way during these Wednesday events at Del Mar. Some of our office-dwellers were even out playing kickball, talking to parents and helping with the very popular water slides and bouncy inflatables,” she said.
City Councilwoman Sally Mounier, whose ward includes Moorhead, said the outreach by the department seems to be working. She was impressed by the 30 residents who showed up at a city council meeting Aug. 8 in support of funding the recreation center’s improvements.
“I can’t see that there will be any issue whatsoever on city council,” she said when asked if the money for Moorhead will be passed as part of next year’s budget.