I'm really happy to see the recent attention being given to the importance of providing sports, arts, and other service learning opportunities for our city's children. During my twenty year tenure on the Park Board, I was a strong proponent for strengthening our recreational facilities and programs. I am excited about the progress we made and the opportunities the future holds. The new Leonard H. Neiman Sports Complex on the upper bluff at Fort Snelling, will offer a youth sports venue for soccer, baseball (peewee through high school), girls fastpitch softball, tennis, and field sports that will be second to none in the metro area. Lighted, fenced, scoreboards, high quality turf, dugouts and on and on. The creation of this facility will be a significant one in bringing a sense of quality to our youth sports programs. Due to the Park Boards recent emphasis on building its youth fundamental programs (5 to 8 year olds), there has been a great increase in the number of children participating at our parks. In order to keep these children positively engaged as they grow older we will need to build the collaboration between the schools, parks, and other youth serving agencies in our city, McKinley Boston's report only confirmed what those of us who have been long involved already knew. Our system is fragmented, lacks coordination, resources ($ and people), and a commitment from all the parties involved to work together. I hope his report will spur on the actions necessary to give our children the same high quality experiences we would expect to see outside the city. I, for one, will follow the progress of this new found interest with great anticipation.
Scott Neiman Windom _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
