Two articles in the
Daily Herald last week got my ticker going -- one for the better, one for the worse.
The first featured American Fork super-resident Lynnel Rhodes, winner of IHC's Heart Health Challenge. I knew Lynnel when she was a dedicated member of the Greenwood Neighbors Initiative, back when. Now she is setting us all an example of good heart health. (Full story
here.)
In today's age of car-oriented community design, public health challenges such as this one become all the more important in teaching folks to look out for their health. Just try and walk to work, or to the corner store for a gallon of milk (What corner store, you ask?), or try and send your kids to play ball without getting in the car to drive them somewhere. You can't do it. It's getting harder and harder to exercise without trotting out the car and paying money to somebody.
This is exactly what I said in the June 21 work session when I talked about prioritizing funding for parks and recreation. Which is why my heart REALLY started pumping when I read this headline in Monday's
Herald:
A.F. Council Rejects Rec Plan
Pardon me, but -- due process says that a City Council cannot reject without a vote, and there is no vote in a work session. Point one: The City Council DID NOT reject anything.
Then I read this:
"American Fork is scaling down its vision for the future of recreation."
By this time, I'm wondering whether I was even in the same meeting.
What happened in the meeting I went to is that Recreation Director Derric Reikert presented a study of the comprehensive long-term recreational needs of the City -- a study which included finishing our parks, adding more ballfields and swim lanes, and eventually adding a skating rink.
The Council's response was to caution him about the expenses involved. For my part, I told Mr. Reikert it was a ten- to twenty-year plan, rather than a five- to ten-year plan. I also made an impassioned speech -- much like the one you read above -- about how my kids can't go anywhere to play in this town unless I drive them there. There was a great moment when Councilmember Gunther threw up his hands and said, "I won't argue with a mother."
It's beyond me how the Herald could reduce that debate to this sentence:
"Councilwoman Heidi Rodeback said the plan was simply too expensive."
I'm blaming the
Herald for this one, because the article as Barbara Christiansen originally wrote it for the
Citizen was much more accurate.
Finding funding is difficult, and always will be. I know this from painful experience. Costs to upgrade our City parks were estimated and bonded for at $3.2 million, but by the time inflation took its toll, actual costs came in at $7.7 million. This left us $4.5 million short of finishing -- but this doesn't mean we're giving up. Finding a way to finish the parks is a top priority for my term -- even if it will take longer than my four years to do so. This is one of the major reasons I chose to run for office.
Lessons learned this week are simple.
If we want to improve public heart health, then healthy community design initiatives -- initatives such as walkable communities and public parks and recreation -- are key.
And if I am to keep my own heart beating, then I've either got to start exercising -- or keep reading the
Herald.
