BY KEITH LIPPOLDT
klippoldt@gbtribune.com
The Great Bend Recreation Board of Directors met Tuesday afternoon at the Carl Soden Recreation Center to hear reports from the different departments and left with a homework assignment, handed out by Executive Director Chris Umphres.
Umphres presented the board with a GBRC Goals Survey, and asked each member to fill it out and return to him by November 25.
The survey touches on changes that might be deemed necessary, facility upgrades or additions, wish-list items and Quality of Life Initiatives: projects under $50,000; projects between $50,000-200,000; and long-term projects over $200,000.
“If there’s things that have been weighing on you, that you’d like to see different, or things you’d like added in there, I mean, there’s no right or wrong answers,” Umphres said. “I’m going to have the staff do this as well. We did that quality of life a few years ago to show you kind of what some of the things that were on there.”
Some of the projects that have been completed, or are scheduled to be completed, include repairing the skate park, small splash pads in the city parks, a shade structure and restrooms at Langrehr Field, adding additional small parks in neighborhoods throughout the city, replace or purchase new grounds equipment, addition of fitness program enhancements to encourage healthy lifestyles, lighting for the city auditorium and spin bikes for the exercise studio, among many others.
“So these aren’t necessarily Rec projects,” Umphres said. “This was community driven. You can see that a lot of things that have been accomplished. These goals provide direction for recreation in Great Bend.”
Umphres will compile the information and use it to plan for the next wave of projects.
In other action, the board:
• Learned the background of Business Director Joe Henry, this month’s featured backstory bio.
Henry was born in McPherson but spent most of his life in Loveland and Ft. Collins, CO. before deciding to move to back to Kansas. Henry played sports in high school and was part of the recreation programs there as well. He received his bachelor’s from the University of Northern Colorado and then his masters from Colorado Christian University. He met his wife, Lindsay, during his college days while rock climbing. The couple have two daughters, Lily and Elise.
Henry invested and partnered in large liquor stores, and in addition, he used his masters degree in psychology and did some therapy work on the side as well as working at a behavioral hospital in Ft. Collins. With much extended family in the Hutchinson area, and unimpressed with the way things were going in Colorado, the couple made the move to Sterling. Henry did some adjunct faculty work at Sterling College before landing the business director job at GBRC.
• Heard the Enrichment Report from Megan Hammeke. She reported that the Rec participated in the Halloween event at the high school, with the mascot in attendance. The Kids Day Out was successful with several events planned with the kids out of school. Other Halloween events included a costume contest and a Halloween event at the senior center.
• Heard from Sports Director Shane Sandberg on the leagues that took place in the fall including a three-on-three men’s league that went over very well. The Rec also hosted volleyball leagues, youth soccer, outdoor soccer and flag football. Instructional outdoor soccer has begun and indoor soccer got underway earlier this week.
Sandberg was grateful to all the football coaches, mentioning two teams coached by members of the Great Bend High School team.
“They’ve been coaching with us for two years now,” he said. “The kids love being out there with them, and seeing them on Friday nights. They didn’t have a great year last year, but this year, that league was very competitive, and they ended up walking away with a trophy.”
• Viewed the attendance report that showed consistency of the particpation for the sports throughout the months from year to year. The biggest month for participation is June, with the ramp-up beginning in May and receding again in July. February and August are the two slowest participation months, but the remaining months stay consistent with the different sports and classes being offered.
In October, there were 2,457 people enrolled in programs, up from 2,416 last year. Total participation for the month was 11,623 of which 5,842 were spectators. For the month, a total of 1,521 hours of supervised activities were offered.
• Announced that Santa’s Workshop will be held at the City Auditorium Monday, Nov. 9 from 6-8 p.m.
• Made a motion that was seconded to extend Umphres' contract for one more year, extending it through 2026. No other changes were made to the contract.
