Neighbors unhappy, but search for community partner is on

Every weekday, some 35 students from College View Elementary School line up at the recreation center two blocks away to receive a healthy, free snack. This service and others might soon be a thing of the past.

The city is trying to privatize the College View Recreation Center in southwest Denver.

Faced with a $160 million budget shortfall, the mayor's office is recommending, among other things, that four recreation centers try to find private, nonprofit organizations to run the facilities, such as a Boys & Girls Club.

A committee is now being formed to look at possible partners for College View to take it over by January, said Denver Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Jill McGranahan. A representative from the College View neighborhood is being sought for the committee.

Whatever organization takes over will serve some sort of community need, but the facility will no longer be run as a recreation center, she said.

McGranahan said she's "confident" the recreation centers will find partners. If no partners are found, however, it will operate with minimal staff and an "open gym" scenario, she said.

Although residents will take a partnership over closure, some aren't pleased. About 80 people attended a College View Neighborhood Association meeting last week to hear about the fate of the recreation center.

"This is a big deal to the community," said Clare Harris, a College View Association member. "There's a sense of community, a sense of family (at the center)."

Some feel it's going to be hard to find a partner who can replicate that sense of community in a neighborhood where a recreation center keeps kids out of gangs, Harris said.

"People have it backwards," said Robrick Granhold, a recreational aide at College View, "It's not that we need a partner to take over the facility, we need someone to take over our programs. There's no one that's going to do that."

The choice to privatize facilities that are underused - with the exception of La Alma - and in close proximity to other recreation centers was made so that recreation center hours could be kept intact and programs wouldn't have to be cut across the board, McGranahan said.

Mayor John Hickenlooper is proposing to provide up to one year of funding to ensure services can be transitioned at La Alma.

Chris Nevitt, Denver City Councilman for District 7, which covers the College View area, said the decision was unavoidable.

"There's no getting around this simple basic budget problem that we face," he said. "The good thing is actually that we've been thinking about going down this road of nonprofit partners because our whole recreation model is unsustainable even in good times ... we've done some homework so we're not as ill-prepared."

Denver City Council will consider final approval of the budget in early November.