BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Starke leaders are both eager and cautions about reviving the city’s recreation department.
Commissioners talked about the future of rec after Brian Blake approached them about the need for recreational programing. He reminisced of playing softball, baseball and basketball at the former Pratt Street rec department and the old armory. There was ping pong and other fun activities to keep kids engaged, like movie days at the theater downtown.
“None of this exists, and it should. These activities molded the man you see today,” Blake said, adding that athletic participation instills structure, accountability, resilience and the importance of hard work. It also instills an appreciation for diversity, he said.
“The current state of youth athletics is less than desirable. To see and hear kids driving to Lake Butler and Keystone to play ball is disheartening. It also shows the extent that the parents will go to in order to do this,” Blake said.
After budget cuts led to the dissolution of the city recreation department, Starke had an agreement with a private youth athletic league for the use of the Edwards Road park for a couple of years, and there are multiple parent-run athletic leagues that sometimes struggle with operational costs and require public funding to supplement their income. The city, meanwhile, has relied on occasional grants for park improvements and fights a seemingly unending battle with vandalism of its facilities.
In addition to the struggle of parent-run organizations, Blake also talked about the struggle many parents have affording the participation fees for their children. He pledged to help a city-run department by negotiating lower costs for uniforms using fundraisers to supplement the city’s financial contribution, which would include hiring a finance director. He also suggested tapping high school athletes to contribute community service hours to support the program.
“I’m not asking for anything in return, other than a fair shake at this,” Blake said. “If you can’t invest in these the kids, the future of these kids, what are we doing?”
Commissioner Shannon Smith said, even as an outgoing commissioner, he wanted to “get the ball rolling” on hiring a sports and recreation director who, among other things, would manage usage and oversee improvement of the city recreation facilities.
“We have some great people in the community that are willing to step up,” Smith said. While the city wasn’t financially able to support a program for years, the board has turned things around, he said, calling for a workshop to begin discussing the path forward.
As soon as the idea for city recreation resurfaced, so did the city commission’s past dispute with the county over who should be funding it. Commissioner Danny Nugent refreshed memories by pointing out that many of the youth participating in the city’s former program were not city residents. Yet the county commission was not contributing funding to support the program, and participant contributions usually came in the form of nominal fees. The city’s budget for a program that included afterschool and summer activities ballooned to several hundred thousand dollars.
Chief Administrative Officer Jimmy Crosby said $100,000 was placed in the 2025 budget primarily for the improvement of the fields and facilities. There is some money to hire a director, but probably not enough. He agreed recreation should be a priority.
Because Crosby would be responsible for recreation, Commissioner Janice Mortimer said he should be given an opportunity to develop a plan prior to a workshop, then present that plan for discussion, inviting the county to participate.
Mayor Scott Roberts agreed, calling for a solid plan that would survive changes in leadership and volunteers.
“I can’t speak for everybody, but I assure you, most of us up here would like to dive deeper into the recreation side of it. Where that goes, I don’t know, but I know we need a plan, but we don’t have one now,” he said.
