Sitting out for budget

At age 20, community college student Bryan Valencia probably doesn’t represent the demographic that the creators of Costa Mesa’s Mobile Recreation van — a truck filled with sports equipment, toys and games that travels around the city’s poorer neighborhoods — had in mind when they designed the program nine years ago.

But Valencia has been coming since the beginning, and it’s still a popular attraction for his group of friends. When the van first pulled up on Joann Street, where he lives, Valencia was in fifth grade and his friends ran over when they saw the staff blocking off the road and setting up games and sports.

“A lot of little kids love it. It keeps them out of trouble,” Valencia said.

Thursday afternoon, he and a handful of high school-aged kids shot hoops with a couple of members of the staff while a dozen-or-so smaller kids played board games nearby for the last time.

The van, which stops on four residential streets on various days of the week, will make its last trip today before going out of commission.

Most of the kids who come live within a couple of blocks of where the van is parked, said supervisor Mondo Medina.

The City Council voted to cut the program along with several other recreation department programs to save money last week, and the cuts are just starting to be felt.

All cuts were proposed by Councilman Gary Monahan at last week’s meeting and yielded a contentious, polarizing debate with some saying they were necessary small steps to protect the city from financial disaster, and others saying that the programs were too valuable to go.

By disbanding the mobile recreation program, the city estimates it will save $35,000 per year by eliminating a handful of part-time positions.

The council also voted to do away with its six concerts in the park for an annual savings of roughly $24,000, and cut hours and days for the after-school program at TeWinkle Middle School, for a savings of $30,000.

The weekly concerts, which take place on the bluff at Fairview Park, were scheduled to start July 7.

There is an effort underway to save some of concerts in the park by getting outside sponsorship, according to Recreation Director Jana Ransom.

The after-school program at TeWinkle, which Principal Kirk Bauermeister credits with helping turn the school around, will be cut from five days a week to four and closed during school breaks. The hours will also be reduced.

“Our after-school programs can get as many as 100 kids a day. We know that parents feel that their kids are safe and doing productive things with us,” Ransom said, adding that the city can’t just keep spending more than it’s taking in.

In addition to those programs, the city will not be dumping snow at Balearic Park to create its annual makeshift sledding slope, which costs the city about $10,000.

Neighbors for Neighbors — where volunteers clean up and renovate city homes and parks a couple of times each year — will also be canceled.

Although all of the labor was provided for free, the city chipped in about $24,000 for paint, shovels, bags and other supplies and support for the program.

Mirna Burciaga, the owner of El Chinaco restaurant, has participated on several occasions and says the tasks the group accomplished were not the only important part of the program.

“Many volunteers were coming with their families and in some ways it’s a way to teach them how to get involved in their own community,” Burciaga said.

The cuts approved by the council total more than $200,000 per year, according to a list compiled by city finance officials.

Monahan suggested much more extensive cuts — eliminating code enforcement and animal control officers, and other after-school programs — but many of them were shot down on tight votes.