Three recreation centers in historically black Montgomery County neighborhoods previously left out of County Executive Ike Leggett’s capital improvements budget may still receive funding for renovations though it could cost the county $30 million.
Last year, members of interfaith activist group Action in Montgomery asked Leggett and members of the council to pledge to set aside funds to repair recreation centers in Olney, Silver Spring, Germantown and part of Potomac.
Leggett agreed, but then, citing the county’s $300 million projected budget deficit, only listed the Germantown project in the capital budget released in January.
“He knows very well the need and he said he would do them, he did not say he would do them all at once,” Leggett’s spokesman Patrick Lacefield said. “When we looked at the escalating construction prices for all of these centers, some of those costs are eye-popping.”
Montgomery recreation officials say the rec centers in question are former schools and office buildings that were built in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, intended for classrooms or business rather than kids playing basketball and using computers or seniors playing checkers. The centers need things as basic as additional toilets or as complex as new gymnasiums, according to county documents that say one of the facility gyms has “extensive rust and structural deterioration.”
County leaders have been discussing the renovations since 2000, and area residents have grown frustrated with the bureaucratic process as the projects slowly made their way through various reports and planning phases.
“In good and bad times these centers and these neighborhoods have been sorely neglected and ignored,” said Rev. Jacqueline Jones-Smith, from Silver Spring’s Good Hope Union United Methodist Church.
Council members gave initial support Tuesday to funding the projects but the items will still need to make it through the council’s reconciliation process when they try to balance their changes against Leggett’s capital budget.
“I do think it’s important to keep our word,” Council Member Roger Berliner said. “We gave our word and our actions reflect that.”
Estimated costs
» Scotland Neighborhood Recreation Center: $8.7 million
» Ross Boddy Neighborhood Recreation Center: $14.7 million
» Good Hope Neighborhood Recreation Center: $6.4 million
