Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Design of gym, dance studio unveiled

Many parents like what they see and hear for New Tampa Community Park. Others press for playing fields.

By DEMORRIS LEE
Published October 30, 2005

TAMPA PALMS - In presenting the design for a new gymnastics facility at New Tampa Community Park, Tampa parks officials heard a familiar cry from many in the community: We need more playing fields in New Tampa.

At a community meeting Tuesday night at Freedom High School, there were huge schematic drawings of the new gymnastics center. A representative from the city's dance program gave a slide presentation of the benefits of a gym and dance facility, detailing the need for another venue because the one existing city gymnastics center already serves 1,500 girls a week for dance and tumbling, with a 1,000-person waiting list.

Several parents with children in the city's dance and gym program gave testimonials on the importance of the program on their children's lives and the importance of a new center being built in Tampa Palms.

"It was her second home," Michael Moore said of his daughter and Tampa's only other dance facility, in Seminole Heights. "She learned lessons there that you can't teach your kids at home."

The proposed gymnastics facility is another phase of a 1999 parks project with the city and the school district. New Tampa Community Park, adjacent to Freedom High and Liberty Middle School, has several playing fields and ball diamonds that are used by residents and the two schools. The initial concept for the park called for a recreation facility, and city officials have decided the best use for the building would be a gymnastics center, in part to relieve the pressure at the Seminole Heights center.

The plan presented Tuesday calls for an initial 19,568-square-foot building, with a 12,500-square-foot gymnastics area as well as community rooms and a lobby. In the future, the building would be expanded by 14,620 square feet, with 8,200 of that consisting of a gymnasium expansion. There would also be a half-acre skate park, 82 paved parking spaces and 59 overflow sod parking spaces. There could also be another soccer field. Many New Tampa residents say they have nothing against gymnastics but that the area's recreational needs would be better served by adding fields for football, rugby, soccer and lacrosse. Some even asked the parks staff to expedite the development of a 5-acre city-owned site behind Fire Station 20 off Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. Thought was given to swapping that land with neighboring St. James United Methodist Church because the church wanted better church parking, but church officials abandoned the idea recently.

Mike Wallace, president of the New Tampa Sharks Pop Warner football league, offered City Council member Shawn Harrison a petition and letter signed by 500 families stressing the need for fields. The letter asks the city to build two new lighted fields next to New Tampa Community Park.

"As your constituents, we respectfully ask you to do whatever you can to have these additional two lighted fields completed as soon as possible," the letter said.

Karen Palus, director the city's Parks and Recreation Department, explained that there is a finite amount of money for all the city's park needs. But she said the department was working to address the park needs in the area.

Asked when exactly the lack of fields will be addressed, Palus said: "I can't speculate and say next year. We are working diligently with the county and we are paying attention."

[Last modified October 30, 2005, 01:13:18]