WECRD at turning point

There's some good news and some bad news this week concerning the future of recreational and family programs in the community.

The good news is the Community Leadership Development Committee is moving forward in its efforts to determine what that future should look like, by launching the first of at least two surveys to find out what the community wants. Filling out that survey is important and we urge all patrons of the district to do so. The CLDC is roughly on schedule to present its recommendations this year to the Treasure Valley YMCA and the Western Elmore County Recreation District.

The bad news is that the WECRD is split over what its future should be.

On the one hand is Molly Marsh, who has served on the board since its inception. She was one of the people who helped create the WECRD with the initial purpose of building a community center with an indoor swimming pool. That is her dream and she has remained steadfastly focused on that project.

On the other hand is the WECRD's new board president, Marsha Sellers, one of the two new members of the three-person board. She is fully supportive of the CLDC's efforts to evaluate not only Marsh's vision but other alternatives as well.

Sellers is well-known for her integrity and honesty. She wants the rec district to move from setting aside its tax dollars exclusively for constructing a community center and to start supporting local recreation programs with at least a portion of its funding. She wants to leave open the possibility of a brick-and-mortar facility for the rec district, but she isn't wedded to that concept exclusively.

She was furious and thought she'd been stabbed in the back when Marsh and volunteer Betty Ashcraft had recently forwarded an application for HUD funding that continued to indicate the rec district was committed to building a center with a swimming pool. She felt that went against an agreement the board had made with the CLDC to explore other alternatives. In her opinion -- and we agree -- that application meant the district was either lying to HUD or lying to the CLDC.

It's not that Sellers opposes applying for funds to supplement the district's own building fund. If the CLDC decides such a community center is viable, that federal money would be extremely useful. But Sellers doesn't want to be telling HUD that a center with a pool is a plan set in stone. She wants the application withdrawn and resubmitted without those details in it.

Caught in the middle is the other new board member, Jana Borgholthaus, who seems to be leaning toward simply modifying the application, rather than withdrawing it.

At a time when the rec district was trying to lie low and let the CLDC help determine its future, when Sellers' more open-minded vision for what the district should be doing had taken some of the wind out of the sails of the district's opponents, that HUD application was merely providing gunpowder for the cannons of the opponents taking shots at the district. It didn't help the district at all.

When it comes to the district's future, Marsh has blinders on. She can only see a center with a pool. And that narrowly focused approach, which seems to ignore any other ideas and options, is what has gotten the rec district in trouble in the first place.

Sellers seems to have a much more open attitude about what the rec district should be doing. She's serious about listening to other ideas and wants to see at least some of the rec district money actually spent on recreation programs. She's likely to embrace whatever the CLDC recommends. We wonder what Marsh will do if the CLDC does not recommend a center with a pool, which we think is probably what will happen.

Sellers deserves a chance to turn the rec district around. But she needs the full support of her board, not members running off with their own agendas.

How this internal dispute plays out over the next few months will be crucial to the very existence of the rec district, and the success of the hard work being done by the CLDC. We urge people to back Sellers, and to let her, and the other board members know, that she has your support.

­-- Kelly Everitt