Recreation committee met last week

The POA recreation committee met the second Monday of the month. Stephanie Stone, sitting in the director seat for the recreation department is settling in to her new position. Stone’s position is hard to define. She is actually the assistant to John Paul, the director of golf, recreation and food services. She is heading up recreation and food services. We will call her the director even though technically that is Paul.
For the last two months the recreation committee has been redefining its role under the leadership of committee chair Tony Cifelli. Committee members are endeavoring to shake things up and become more active and less just observers.
Stone started the July meeting with her director report. She said overall the Independence Day holiday went well. One big exception was a near drowning at Balboa beach. A man was not breathing when pulled from the water. He was turning blue. CPR was administered and he was breathing when EMS transported him to a local hospital for further evaluation.
The fireworks themselves were fantastic. The best show in a long time according to several of the committee members. The added oomf was the music accompanying the fireworks. Village radio station KVRE played patriotic music throughout the evening. Many watchers had their radios tuned to KVRE and the music was a real plus.
The DeSoto bus route was eliminated and the remaining bus service went smoothly. According to Stone everyone was moved out of the Balboa beach area well within an hour.
Stone also mentioned the recent awarding of the Balboa Club’s food services contract to Hector Leal of El Acapulco. She said Leal will open doors on the restaurant by August 2. Breakfast and lunch will be offered downstairs and dinner upstairs.
The cherry lift at the natatorium is down. Unfortunately, it is un-fixable and must be replaced. The natatorium was scheduled for an inspection on the geothermal cooling and heating by Dry Air last week.
The work on the low water bridge on DeSoto Park Lane is complete.
Recreation committee members are busy prioritizing their list of priorities for the upcoming year. The number one priority is to secure a plan to refurbish but more probably replace the DeSoto pools. The committee is looking into location, engineering recommendations in the 2011 budget, cost and the eventual work on the pool in the 2012 budget. At this point the pools are leaking like sieves. The pool surfaces are flaking. A pool sub-committee has been formed to start addressing some of the above issues.
Stone requested the recreation committee become more involved with setting fees for this year. The fee schedule was due quickly and communication on this issue is being done by e-mail.
The next meeting of the recreation committee is scheduled for August 9 at 1:30 p.m. at the Coronado Center.