Reaching the Parks and Rec Advisory Board

Policies that affect our parks and recreational services, such as leasing public land to the YMCA and establishing tiered pricing for seasonal pool passes, are not decided solely between city staff and City Council. Charlottesville has a Parks and Recreation Advisory Board consisting of citizens who examine the City Parks and Rec Department proposals, weigh all the merits, and add their own suggestions before passing recommendations onto the City Council.

I mention this because, as a member of the aforementioned Board, I am often surprised to hear how many people do not know that we exist, or do not know who serves on the Board, or have no idea how to contact us.

The list of Board members is on the city website. We come from many different backgrounds and, as with any group this size, often have disagreements. But we all share a commitment to improving the lives of the entire community through our public parks and recreation services.

And in response to a request from the Board, the City has made it easier to reach us. If you have questions about what we do on the Board, or the recommendations that we have made to the Council, you can now reach the entire Parks and Recreation Advisory Board through a single email address: (parksandrecreationadvisoryboard@charlottesville.org) parksandrecreationadvisoryboard (at) charlottesville (dot) org.

We are simply citizens, just like you, and share many of your concerns. We have dedicated ourselves to learning all about the factors that may impact the future of parks and recreation in our city, and take seriously the recommendations that we make to City Council. So if you have an issue with any of those recommendations, or may not fully understand all the elements that weighed in our decisions, try asking. We want to hear from you.