Heath is new SPRD business manager

The rehabilitation of the Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD) continues apace. The organization is gradually regaining its financial health and is renewing and strengthening its relationships with other community organizations.

The district announced last week that Anne Heath will be the district's business manager. According to board member Mike Morgan, Heath, who was already working for the district, stood out among some 15 résumés considered by the board.

"Our main criteria was to have someone who already had some relationships in the community," Morgan said.

Heath is a full-time employee who will manage the district's business and assist in program development and management. She will be assisted by part-time office coordinator Cindy Crowder.

"She brings a lot of enthusiasm and understands the need for collaboration and sharing of resources in the community," Heath said.

SPRD is coming off its most successful winter basketball tourney series in recent years. According to Morgan, the tournaments left a net revenue after expenses of $10,252, which will be split per agreement with Champion Sports Camps, which helped organize and run the tournaments.

Morgan said that SPRD estimates conservatively a $150,000 direct economic impact to the Sisters community with bringing 104 teams to tournaments, many of whose members stay overnight in Sisters and most of which dine and shop here during their stay.

Other sports tournaments are in the planning and exploration phase, with a major lacrosse tournament set for May 7-8. The Outlaws high school lacrosse program has placed itself under SPRD's administrative umbrella, which may become a model for administration of school sports as school budgets continue to shrink.

Morgan emphasized that a strong relationship with the school district is key to SPRD's health.

"The most important partnership in the community is with the Sisters School District," he said.

The district has also added new board and budget committee members. Quay Richerson, a member of the Positive Coaching Alliance, is filling Bonnie Malone's seat by appointment and Davina Luz, Sisters Little League President last year, will join Leslie Minor, Paul Kaiser, Ben Ehrenstrom and Marcus Peck on the SPRD budget

committee.

The district tried to aid the Sisters Charter Academy of Fine Arts (SCAFA), offering to host the school for the remainder of the school year. The district planned to charge $6,000 for the period, less than half what SCAFA would have had to pay to stay in its prior location, but the charter academy told Heath on Tuesday morning that they could not come up with any money to make the arrangement

work.

SPRD will continue to develop programs, but at a very deliberate pace.

"We can't afford to speculate," Heath said.

That means the district will have to have a high level of confidence that any program - for kids or for adults - has significant demand in the community. Programs need to be

self-sustaining.

"We've got to move up in a very measured way," Morgan said. "We can't be everything to everybody at this stage."

While the organization remains cautious in moving toward the future, there is at least a future to move toward.

"We have stopped the bleeding and we are on course with the plan that we developed," Morgan said. "(SPRD) will end this fiscal year with some cash reserves and without additional debt, and we will pay down the existing debt ($56,000) as planned."

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Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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