I have been associated with the Apex Park and Recreation District board now for 8 years and I see storm clouds looming on the horizon with regard to youth sports facilities in our area.      I feel we have become complacent and are overlooking some needs and priorities with regard to youth sports facilities.  My real concern here is my premise that youth sports is a tremendous growing and teaching experience for youth and the failure to provide adequate facilities will erode this experience.

Here are three concerns:

1)  Our 50 meter pool (Meyers Pool) has sustained significant structural water damage this last year and estimates are that 10 years are all that we can expect to obtain from it.   Unfortunately this 10 year window sits right in the middle of our district bond “cycle” assuming the bonds that built the Apex center are renewed.     Although our facility is a 50 meter pool it does not come with all of the current amenities like an acceptable diving depth at both ends and a warm-up & warm-down pool for competitive swimming.  A good example of a new facility can be seen at 136th and Holly St. in Thornton Colorado (http://www.adams12.org/athletics_vmac).

Adams County Veterans Memorial Aquatics Facility

It is my current position that a replacement needs to be considered to prevent a severe disruption to this youth sport in our community and the current location may not have enough acreage to accommodate a replacement.

2) The youth baseball indoor batting and training facility is going away.  Given the popularity of the sport in our area and state and the value that this youth sport has ingrained in our society (“America’s past time”) I feel that a new training facility for important youth sport should be in the planning stages.  The Apex PRD district is prevented by statute from building and operating a batting cage but an indoor training facility could be adjacent to one.

3) Although midget football and American football in general is a part of our weekends we do not have an artificial turf field for youth to play on in case of inclement weather.    There are full size turf fields around at our local high schools that are utilized but none exist for those that play on smaller sized fields.   I feel that this is also a gap with regard to how important this youth sport is to our community.

These three concerns obviously need to be measured against the other priorities of our district and what may be available in the private sector.   There are a number of for-profit workout and recreation facilities so a good balance must always be obtained.