County rec stance disappointing

Contributed
Published: June 12, 2008

To the editor,
As parents of children involved in Orange County Parks and Recreation activities we were dismayed to read that sports, childcare activities and recreational options are viewed by the county board and Mr. Rolfe as an unnecessary drain on the county budget.
As county citizens, we would like to assume we are being offered wonderful services that enrich our youth and adults. Just as important as a library program and animal shelter, parks and recreation is something one expects to find in an area where they live.
In last week’s Orange County Review, in the article titled “Recked,” Mr. Rolfe said, “We don’t understand why we’re running a swim team.”
Perhaps that is because he did not live in Orange County close to 20 years ago when Debra Bickley and local parents began the swim team.
One of the greatest things that drew our family to the swim team is that the Gordonsville Gators won the Jefferson Swim League Sportsmanship Award often.
That demonstrated to us that the emphasis was on teaching our children the lessons that team participation is supposed to teach.
Being on the Gordonsville Gators, hundreds of children have learned to swim, while others have become lifeguards and coaches, and even earned college scholarships.
The Gordonsville Gators parents have been helpful as Mr. Rolfe noted, maybe motivated by the fearful rumors in March of the Dix Memorial Pool being closed down. The rug was pulled out from under the swim team mere weeks before the season was due to begin. The parents came together at the last minute because it looked like if we didn’t, the team wouldn’t happen.
Perhaps it looked too easy to Mr. Rolfe, but all we were doing was following the groundwork Debra Bickley had laid in running the swim team so well for so many years.
With her firing, Orange County has lost one of its greatest advocates for parks and recreation.
“…taking it program by program as it comes in the schedule,” isn’t good planning, it is damage control. But the damage has been done and it is sad to see the recreational needs of our county reduced to this.
Orange County has decided to spend $50 million building a new school in anticipation of more children moving to the area. What will those children do once they get here?
Chris and Phillis Hynes
Gordonsville