Implementing recommendations from the recent recreation review will be a demanding task for the City of Powell River’s new director of parks, recreation and culture.
Ray Boogaards is looking forward to the challenge. Many ideas about recreation will have to be considered following the release of the city’s and the Powell River Regional District’s recreational studies, released by Gary Young, a recreation consultant who conducted extensive research throughout the region.
Boogaards, still very new in his job, has read the reports and sees great potential. This will serve as impetus for him to help put a plan together. He is hoping to work with Mac Fraser, the city’s chief administrative officer (CAO), and Al Radke, the regional district’s CAO, and examine how to bring the information in the reports to the public.
“We have to look at a model that is unique to this area and supported by the majority of residents,” he said. “That’s what we have to come up with. The report is excellent; Gary is a great recreationist and knows his stuff.
“Gary’s job was to gather information and determine recommendations. My job is to see how we are going to roll it out in the most efficient way and the way it’s going to benefit everybody.”
Boogaards said his biggest focus, having been on the job for a few weeks in Powell River, is getting out to meet people. He’s trying to meet his departmental staff individually, and is also working to meet with major user groups in the community and start inviting them into discussions.
“My concern is to get information from people before I arbitrarily think something is going to work here,” Boogaards said. “Every community is unique. I have to find out what people want.”
Boogaards is also interested in the financial components of recreation.
“I will be looking at how we can operate areas at greater efficiency and get the best opportunity for the taxpayer,” he said.
The new director has experience in maximizing budgets. In the 1980s, Boogaards worked in Windsor, Ontario, the centre of automobile manufacturing in Canada. The industry was hit heavily financially during that era. Recreation budgets were frozen for years. The only way to spend more money was to make more money.
“We were able to do that,” Boogaards said. “That’s what I’m hoping to do, to find those efficiencies and find new opportunities for revenue sources.”
An excellent source of information will be the frontline staff members in the parks, recreation and culture department. “We have a fantastic staff and in a lot of cases, those people in the frontline know more information about what the public is requesting than the person sitting in an office.”
Boogaards said when he was a lifeguard at the beginning of his recreation career, people would come to him and mention all of their concerns.
“My biggest goal right now is to see what ideas the public and staff have.”
It’s also important to see how various agreements with other organizations in the region can be established. Boogaards recently met with school district representatives to look at upgrading a reciprocal agreement on facilities use. The one in place dates back to the late 1980s.
“We want to see what we can do to maximize use,” Boogaards said. “We are maximizing our time in the arena, allowing the school to use this facility at little or no cost. In return, we need program space in the evenings to bring programs out to the community.
“Maybe we start looking more at those opportunities and what other opportunities there are for this building (Powell River Recreation Complex).”
Powell River’s demographic also has an effect on program design. Boogaards said the average age in the community is 51 years old. That’s about 10 years older than the average age of the province in total.
“That’s huge, so when we look at those kinds of things, what are we programming? We must have a lot of retirees, so what do we offer?”
It’s extremely important that the public is part of the process and Boogaards said he cannot stress that enough.
“We have a great opportunity here to keep people as active as possible, between the parks, recreation and culture,” he said. “My position is not to operate this facility. My position is to look at the bigger picture and start looking at the best options for the community.”
