City hasn't expanded recreation to fill void

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

When the threat of a teacher's strike loomed large in 1997, city officials geared up to offer free recreational programs for youngsters at 60 O'ahu parks and promised that no child would be turned away.

This year the city won't offer anything like that, in part because "we really don't want to be in the position of strikebreaking," said city spokeswoman Carol Costa.

Costa said Mayor Jeremy Harris decided with City Parks & Recreation Director Director Bill Balfour there would be no large-scale recreational program this year to accommodate children turned out of school by a teachers' strike, she said.

"We really do not have the personnel this year to recruit and screen the volunteers that would be necessary to try and mount a program like that," Costa said.

She said the city has reduced staffing significantly since the mid-1990s.

In 1997, the city administration asked each department to assign 15 staff members to spend their workdays at parks facilities to help run the day-care program. In addition, about 200 volunteers were enlisted.

Parks officials reported that about 2,500 youngsters were signed up for the program in 1997 but a teachers' strike was averted in last-minute negotiations.

Maui and Kaua'i officials also said they were planning for no special county-sponsored recreation programs during this strike.

Pat Engelhard, Hawai'i County's parks and recreation director, said the county gyms will be closed today for training programs that had been planned well in advance.

On Monday, the county will reopen the gyms and and will adjust hours at gyms and community centers to keep the facilities open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to accommodate youngsters who are out of school because of the strike.