I would hope that the proposed study for a Brookfield recreation center would include the option of the creation of a park/recreation district as an alternative to the proposed construction of physical structure(s).
I believe that he original intent of the creation of a recreation department was to develop programs to meet the need village residents where such programs were not available through public and quasi-public institutions, i.e., schools, religious institutions, YMCA, etc., and through the use of underutilized village lands and property to meet those needs.
We are at that point in Brookfield’s history where a park district could be in a better position to coordinate the meeting of the community’s recreational needs with other recreation-related entities such as schools, not-for-profits and other park districts, to pool and maximize common resources, without maintaining a recreation department, which will continue to compete for limited financial resources with public safety, utilities and public works needs.
James Mann, Brookfield
