The City of Sterling Recreation Division has decided to cancel the 2021 youth and adult basketball seasons due to COVID-19. They made the announcement on Facebook and at a regular Parks, Library and Recreation Board meeting Monday.
“We are running into some space issues,” said Recreation Superintendent Monty Waite, referring to not being able to use RE-1 Valley School District’s gym facilities. “We’re meeting with the school district about once a month to talk to them about where they’re projecting things to go and it comes down to they want to do something for the kids, but they don’t know how to control everything as far as cleaning and all of that kind of stuff.”
Waite said he plans to continue meeting with the district in hopes that the recreation division will be able to use RE-1’s facilities to offer some activities, such as youth volleyball, after spring break, which is March 15 to 19. The Facebook announcement also said the recreation division is working on smaller “team” sports to have available soon.
Sterling Recreation Center is open. Patrons are asked to sign up for a time slot if they want to use the fitness equipment or do lap swimming in the indoor pool. While the courts are closed right now, Waite said PLR officials have been discussing opening them back up for limited usage.
COVID-19 has dramatically impacted the number of people using the recreation center. According to Waite, total visitors for 2020 were just under 15,000, which in a normal year is about how many people they would see in a month and a half over the summer.
The recreation center is doing a promotion through Friday, Jan. 15, offering 10% off all yearly passes or you can buy any two punch passes (10-count or 30-count) and get the third punch pass for 10% off. For more information or to purchase a pass call 970-52207882 or email waite@sterlingcolo.com.
During his report, Parks, Library and Recreation Director Wade Gandee shared that despite Logan County moving to orange on Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s COVID-19 dial the PLR Department has not made many changes to its restrictions.
“We were kind of already set at that level anyway, so we haven’t had to change a lot of things,” he said. “If (the county) starts to go down (on the dial) obviously we’ll do everything we can to get as many people into our areas as possible.”
Gandee told the board he is unsure when vaccinations will be available for PLR employees. The city will not be requiring employees to get vaccinated, but it will be offered for those who want it.
Like the rec center, Overland Trail Museum and Sterling Public Library are open, but they aren’t able to offer some of their normal activities. During her superintendent update, museum curator Kay Rich said they are hoping to be able to resume offering their monthly History Café programs in February and they are also looking at organizing some mini Zoom tours of the museum in the event that they are not able to offer regular school tours this spring.
Museum staff is also busy working on two projects being funded by the Propst Family Fund, the first being the Talking Trail project. Talking Trail is an app that tells stories about points of interest in a community. The Logan County Chamber of Commerce has developed a Talking Trail for the county and the museum will be part of it.
“I think it’s really going to add a lot to the museum,” Rich said.
The Propst Family Fund is also being used to develop a kids’ agriculture exhibit, which will be housed where the print shop used to be. As for the new Print Shop and Media Center, Rich said they are still putting some finishing touches on it and hope to open it when they can have a grand opening celebration.
Additionally, Rich mentioned Colorado State University has been cataloging and cleaning museum artifacts from the Summit Springs Battle Ground, which should be returned soon.
Library Superintendent Sandy VanDusen shared that in lieu of the traditional Santa City event with activities and a visit from Santa, the library and the rec center handed out 150 Santa-City-To-Go bags with various activities.
With the holidays over, the library is now turning its focus to planning for the Summer Reading Program. Since they don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like this year because of COVID-19, they are putting together some different options they can use depending on what they’re allowed to do.
Parks, Cemetery and Forestry Superintendent Jamie Ulrich reported that forestry crews are busy doing as many action requests as possible right now, so that they will be able to start going into the park system in February to take out trees and do clean up there.
He also shared that the new columbariums for both Riverside Cemetery and Sunset Memorial Gardens have been set in place and are being used. Plus, the cemetery crew is keeping busy with burials; over the last three months they’ve been averaging about three to seven burials a week between the two cemeteries.
In other business, Gandee reported that after receiving some funds she was waiting on from Fleming School, local artist Karen Foote has begun work on a mural that will be hung at the Prairie Park pavilion celebrating the life of Keith Prinsloo, a Sterling High School student who died in a pickup versus bicycle accident in 2019. Two Fleming students, Braden Jewell and Madilyn Monroe, approached the board last year seeking approval to put a mural up at the pavilion after raising funds for the project. The mural will be put on a frame that can be attached to the building and removed if repairs are ever needed.
Gandee told the board he doesn’t have a time frame for when the mural will be completed.
Earlier in the meeting the PLR director shared that he will be making a presentation to Colorado Parks and Wildlife on Wednesday in hopes of securing a CPW Non-Motorized Trail grant to be used for the section of the city’s multi-use trail located between Cheyenne Boulevard and Main Street.
Gandee said he’s not sure if Sterling will be successful in getting the CPW grant this year, because CPW’s focus right now is more on providing funding to improve existing trails rather than build new trails. However, he said it does help that the city received a multimodal grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation in 2019 for the section of the trail from Iris Drive to Cheyenne Boulevard.
Grant recipients are expected to be announced in April.
In other business, the board elected Jim Smith to serve as vice president. Tracy Glissmann was elected president at the board’s previous meeting in November.
