Understanding the Process: County Budget 101

Did You Know?

The Local Government Budget

& Fiscal Control Act requires all

counties in North Carolina to

submit a recommended budget

to the governing board no later

than June 1st. Counties must

adopt a budget no later than

July 1st. Use this page to follow

the process, and learn more

about the Mecklenburg County

Fiscal Year 2013 Budget.

Many thanks to the Park and

Recreation Senior Leadership

Team for their role in making

successful recommendations to

the County Managers Office of

Management and Budget.

Fiscal Year 2013 Presents Opportunities for Park & Rec .

Capital Planning At the June 5, 2012 Board of County Com-

missioners meeting, the County Managers

recommended budget gained approval from

the board.

The Capital Budget for Park and Recreation

was also passed which provides $10M for

Ballantyne Park, Wesley Heights Greenway

and First Ward Park. We also have $6.6M for

land acquisition.

Thank you Park and Recreation Commission

I want to thank all of you who met with Board

members, spoke during the public hearing

and continued our advocacy efforts. We

have great support, but few really understand

the totality of what we do. Keep the educa-

tion efforts up and encourage all of our advi-

sory board members to do the same.

- Jim Garges, Director

Insightful and effective Capital Planning is critical to the

success and vision of many Park and Recreation

goals. (First Ward Park)

this issue Park News P.1

Enterprise Services P.2

Nature Preserves & Natural Resources P.3

Community & Recreation Center Services P.4

I S S U E

J u n e 8 2 0 1 2

45 WEEKLY

NEWSLETTER OF THE

PARK AND RECREATION

DEPARTMENT FridayFridayLetterLetter THE

Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Leadership Academy Leadership Academy participants for 2012-

2013 (Class of 2013) have been selected

and staff will begin to receive acceptance

letters this week, from the Leadership Acad-

emy selection committee.

Thank you for your interest to all who

applied.

Summer Baseball Tournaments Continue

Nations Baseball 1st Round for State Games of the Carolina’s Tourna-ment

On June 2nd—3rd Youth

Boy’s baseball games were

held at Hornets’ Nest Park

and Renaissance Park. A

total of 143 teams played in

the regional event. Twenty

teams (11 & under) played

at Renaissance Park.

Twenty-three teams (8 &

under) and (13 & under)

played at Hornets’ Nest

Park. Eighteen teams (13

& under) played at South

Charlotte Middle School/

William R. Davie Park.

Teams traveled from across

North Carolina to play in

these tournaments and all

games started at 9:00am on

Saturday & Sunday.

Youth Boys and Girls Teams

Engage in Fun, Healthy,

Competition Sports—

Top Gun Sports Youth Girls State Warm-Up Championship Tourna-ment

Also that week twenty

teams participated in the

tournament and a total of

fifty-five ball games were

played over two days.

Winners and runners up

received a set of trophies

as well as Top Gun special-

ized sunglasses. Teams

traveled from across North

Carolina. All tournaments

games started at 9:00am on

Saturday and Sunday.

.

Y o u t h A t h l e t i c s Mecklenburg County Park

and Recreation offers a

wide variety of athletic pro-

grams to youth participants

throughout the year. All

youth athletics programs

are Recreation Center

based and take place at

various parks and recrea-

tion centers throughout

Mecklenburg County.

Aquatic Center Hosts Omaha Swim Meet — Sixty-nine (69) Olympic Trial

hopefuls swam in the Last Call

for Omaha Swim Meet this

past Saturday and Sunday

(June 2-3) at the Mecklenburg

County Aquatic Center. Swim-

mers raced the clock to receive

an invitational to Olympic Tri-

als . A few swimmers were

lucky enough to punch their

ticket to Omaha, Nebraska for

a shot to make the US Olympic

Swim Team.

Keeping the Edge Sharp

NATURE SCENES McDowell Nature Preserve

Orchard Oriole at

McDowell Nature

Preserve

Latta Nature Preserve

Flat Branch Nature Preserve

Volunteer Opportunities

Many Helping Hands Summertime has arrived and brings new opportunities for the 250 high school students who volunteered with Park and Recreation this school year . We wish them well, want to thank them for their efforts and hope they enjoyed us, as much as we enjoyed having them. This past week we had several corporate groups volunteering in our parks. A big thanks to Wells Fargo for volunteer work provided at Anita Stroud Park, SPX Corporation who volunteered at Boyce Park and ERM Group who assisted at McMullen Creek Greenway. The work is more pleasant, despite the daytime heat, when you are working with a group of willing and helpful volunteers. For more information regarding volunteer opportunities, please contact Lori Say-lor@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov

On June 6 Environmental Educators and Out-

door Recreation specialists met for a full day

of training to gear up and be ready for summer

camps. Staff learned camp songs, policies,

procedures, emergency protocols and tricks of

the trade. We can’t wait to have campers at

the nature preserves hitting the trails and en-

joy the great outdoors.

Recreational News from Mecklenburg Communities

Ray Play “End of the Year” Beach Party: They did it all at Sugaw Creek Recreation Center on Tues-

day, June 5th. Seventeen (17) young participants enjoyed

the “End of the Year” Beach Party with loads of activities in-

cluding, bean bag toss, water games, bowling, basketball,

cheerleading and motor skill races. The celebration ended

with art and crafts and all children receiving a take home

goodie bag.

North Region —

Zumba Fitness!Zumba Fitness! Central Region

Let’s Zumba! Burn calories

while dancing to Caribbean

Style music. This one hour

class will have you excited

about working out every

day. Join the fun on Satur-

days at 10 am.

For more information on

this and other programs call

704.432.3048 or email Bet-

teRaeThomasRecreationCent

er@MecklenburgCountyNC.g

ov.

R a n d o l p h M i d d l e School “End Of Year Celebration” at Naomi Drenan Recreation Cen-ter: On June 5th, 200 students

from Randolph Middle

School came to Naomi

Drenan Recreation Center

to celebrate the end of the

school year. They experi-

enced a multitude of games

& activities, using the gym,

multipurpose rooms, and

outdoor fields. The kids

were also informed of the

many programs and activi-

ties this summer available

to them and their families at

the facility as well as in the

department.

For more information

about our programs and

events, contact Nao-

miDrenanRecreationCent

er@MecklenburgCountyN

C.gov or 704.432.5231.

Zumba involves dance and

aerobic elements. Zumba's

choreography incorporates

hip-hop, soca, samba,

salsa, merengue, mambo,

martial arts, and some Bol-

lywood and belly dance

moves. Squats and lunges

are also included.

There are 12 million peo-

ple taking weekly Zumba

classes in over 110,000

locations across more than

125 countries.

More News from CRCS

It’s All About INVOLVEMENT.

Getting citizens from various

demographics involved in the

community and helping them

become advocates for Parks,

Natural Resources and Com-

munity Recreation Services is

a great way to create citizen

involvement.

Youth participants in the Diamonds

in the Rough Step Team

Don’t Forget to… MAKE CHILDREN SMILE.

Go the extra mile, with a smile!

Revolution Sports Academy Revolution Royalty Step Team Stomps Out Bullying Revolution Royalty Step Team of Revolution

Park Sports Academy dedicated their efforts

to bringing awareness to bullying in several

performances. The team participated in

“Step Up, Don’t Get Stepped On”, hosted by

Diamonds in the Rough Step Team at the

McCrorey Family YMCA for the 2nd Annual

Anti-Bullying program. The following week,

the ladies hosted their monthly showcase

entitled “Strut Your Stuff”, a program that

highlights a monthly topic that is discussed

and then executed through performance,

which was a dedication to the many victims

of bullying in their schools and community.

Come join the Revolution Royalty Step

Team, Friday, June 15, 2012 for “Bullying

Stops Now” performance at 6pm.

For more information about the Revolu-

tion Royalty Step Team please contact

Revolution Park Sports Academy at (704)

432-4963.

T-Ball Celebration at Winget School Recreation Site On June 4th, Winget School Recreation Site’s

tee-ball team celebrated the end of a wonder-

ful experience for the children & parents with

an awards presentation program. Family and

friends came together for an evening of cele-

bration and fun. All were excited to receive

their awards and are excited that they can do it

again next year. We would like to thank all of

the parents for being supportive, the coaches

for volunteering their time to teach the game of

T-ball, and to our little athletes for making this

a great season full of excitement.

For more information about this or other

programs at Winget, contact staff at

704.504.5433.

LIVE LIFE. HAVE FUN. HELP OTHERS.

Community & Recreation Center Services

Upcoming Events

PRC Meeting

June 12, 2012—Mallard Creek Recreation Center

Submissions for the Newsletter

Please submit all news for the

Friday Letter to your Division

Director for review and routing.

Park Partners may contact

Kesha Meads at

Kesha.Meads@MecklenburgCountyNC.gov

for publication assistance.

The Friday Letter Issue 45 June 8, 2012

The Summer Cool Down— Scenes for Neighborhood Pools

Citizens enjoy a cool down in their

neighborhood pools.

Mecklenburg County

Park and Recreation

Senior Leadership Team

Jim Garges, Director

Michael Kirschman, Deputy Director

James Alsop, Enterprise Services

Renea Barber, Human Resources

Mario Chang, Budget Administration

Lee Jones, Capital Planning

Lola Massad, Community Services and

Recreation Centers

Jeff Robinson, Park Operations

5841 Brookshire Blvd. Charlotte, NC 28216 (704) 336-8840