Recreation in Saco

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A Newsletter by the City of Saco, Maine	June, 2005	Return to newsletter index

Recreation in Saco

Saco Parks and Recreation Department is facing many exciting challenges as it enters the 2006 Fiscal Year. Staffing changes, landfill development, improvements at the new community center, disposal of the old community center, program evaluation, and revenues are a few of the issues to be addressed. We welcome our new Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation, John Sherman who comes to us from the Town of Kennebunk.

We have a new home on 75 Franklin Street. Many changes are occurring in this building on a daily and weekly basis. With a grant from the State of Maine the whole building will become handicapped accessible in the near future. Grant funding from Homeland Security will help to purchase a generator so the building can be used as an evacuation center for the City. We have also received a donation of kitchen equipment from the Old York County Jail. The building and 4 acres of prime building land were purchased from the State of Maine for $400,000. This will be paid in five installments of $80,000 per year. The money to acquire the Franklin Street Armory did not come from taxpayer dollars.

Recreation Impact fees will be used for the purchase, and also for the replacement of the leaking roof. When a new house is built in the City of Saco a fee is charged for the impact its residents will have on the City's services. The Recreation Impact fees are used for acquisition and improvement of facilities.

In an effort to promote continuation of services, current programs are being evaluated to make them more cost effective. Our objective is to partially offset budget expenditures with revenues. The main consideration of the Parks and Recreation Department continues with the understanding that Recreation is an integral part of the Community and that the Community is only as good as the people in it.

By the time this newsletter is printed, the Saco Public Works Department, in partnership with the Parks and Recreation Department, will be starting the reconstruction of one of the caps at the Saco Landfill. This will develop about 5 acres of active open space. This reconstruction will provide our community with safe; economical play areas vital to our youth for use in sports, athletic practices and games. There will also be an additional 6 acres of formal fields built in the area of the Saco Landfill where there were no landfill activities. This area is adjacent to the City's pond at the Transfer Station, which is stocked with bass and open to the public during normal operational hours. This importance of developing and preserving open space is not just local and is definitely not new, as is indicated in the following quote by Theodore Roosevelt:

"In utilizing and conserving the natural resources of the Nation, the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight.... The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life."
Address to the National Editorial Association, Jamestown, Virginia, June 10, 1907.