Reply to Arlington proposing to close county gymnastics program

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Stafford is the only other one that could be considered northern VA. The classes offered by Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudoun are on set up and take down basis in multi use areas.

Then there’s Sportsplax in PG county which is operated by parks and rec as far as the program. But obviously the building administration and initial capital was different from Barcroft. But my impression of strictly how the gymnastics program is run it seems very similar to Arlington.

Going farther north there are some others in Maryland I’m pretty sure. But I can’t name them off the top of my head.

Capital posts all their team tuition online, you can look it up. Arlington is well in range and more expensive in some cases. Tuition wise. Keep in mind these private teams have competitive “assessment fees” during the season of 1-2K total in addition to tuition. This covers coaching fees for meets and such. The team parent associations for Arlington also cover these fees, but I don’t know what the current fee level is there, and how it compares. From the county accounting perspective, they probably need to keep things separate but maybe more fees could be assessed at the county level to make up a salary gap, for instance. Again we don’t have any hard numbers (on the Arlington side) so it’s hard to say. 
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So this is not a standard offering for a local government is the answer.[/quote]
Nature centers, a bike trail, and Long Bridge also aren't standard county offerings for pretty much anywhere. Arlington's an affluent community that has nice things.[/quote]

Arlington is affluent but money is still finite and you still have to be able to justify expenditures. Nature centers serve educational purposes, not just at schools but for the general community, put on events for all ages, and help preserve green spaces. Is there a single public (or even private) school child in Arlington County who hasn't been through one of the nature centers and learned about hawks or owls or seen one up close for the first or only time? I doubt it. Bike trails are inexpensive to build and maintain, promote a healthy activity for all ages, and provide an alternative commuting method in a county with awful traffic. Long Bridge offers programming from birth to 80+, including foundational water safety classes, teaching an essential, life saving skill. It's a facility that is used pretty equally by kids, middle aged adults, and the elderly.

Now make the case for the Bancroft gymnastics program in a way that makes it as appealing or beneficial as the three other amenities you mentioned. If you can't do that in a way that is convincing for your fellow residents, then the program shouldn't exist.[/quote]
It really just sounds like you're not familiar with the gymnastics program, which offers programming for toddlers, preschoolers, kids--all the way through high school--plus there's both an adaptive and an adult program (with a waitlist above 50 people).   It's one of the only boys gymnastics programs in the area, something that's really hard to find.  Gymnastics offers lots of health benefits including strength and balance training, flexibility, and overall health benefits. It's a very quality and popular program, with huge waitlists.  A large number of kids in the county take at least one gymnastics class at some point in their childhood. The facility also serves as home to the Wakefield gymnastics team, making it equal with the programs provided at Yorktown and WL, as there's not a space for the Wakefield team to practice at Wakefield.  On top of all this, there's a possibility for the program to cover its costs such that it's a resource for the community and not a burden. We just need to get the county manager and DPR on board with maximizing the facility and making sure it's being fully utilized.

And you can make claims about water safety and Long Bridge being necessary all you want, but there is absolutely no justification for the largesse that is that facility.  We already had public pools in Arlington at each of the high schools.  Long Bridge could have been a facility that benefited the whole community, but instead it was very focused on competitive swim, and it's continuing to eat up county funds with expensive repairs to a brand new facility and by running a loss.[/quote]

+1 Long Bridge has high dives that I have seen used once or twice in many visits to the facility. I cannot imagine how much it costs to install, maintain, and insure these high dives, and it seems the actual use of the high dives is extraordinarily rare. How do these high dives benefit Arlington residents? The higher of the two is a type of board I’ve only ever seen in person at the USNA.

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