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Star recreation director says programs are growing; asks council to consider larger facility
Summary
City sports and recreation staff reported rising participation, capped youth basketball enrollment due to space limits, new registration systems and requests for future facility space and funding partnership.
Ryan, who presented the city’s sports and recreation update to the council, told members the department is seeing strong demand for youth and adult programs and constrained facility capacity.
Ryan said youth basketball this season was capped at 358 participants because available gym space is exhausted. The department is using new registration systems (TeamSideline for sports; a different system for recreation) and expects that additional school gym capacity or a new dedicated community facility could allow the program to add roughly 100 more basketball registrations. He invited council members to attend an Idaho Recreation and Parks Association brown-bag visit to the Meridian Home Court on March 12 to view a larger, multi-court community center.
Ryan described a busy recreation calendar: 62 unique participants in the city’s before-and-after-school program (staffed by six adults and 14 teen workers); 24 recreation activities held in December; drop-in adult programs; and planned spring camps, a drone class, podcasting class and an adult paint-and-sip event. He said the December LEGO activity drew a demand of 300 kits for next year after 50 kits were distributed in 90 minutes.
In closing, Ryan told the council the department needs more space to meet community demand and is exploring options that would mix private and public funding. Mayor Chadwick noted that planned impact-fee updates will account for facilities like community recreation centers.
