Conway update

After the community meeting last night and a meeting with seniors today, I wanted to clear up some misperceptions by neighbors about where we are in the process of dealing with Conway.

Some people seem to believe that there is still a chance that Conway Rec Center could remain under the management of St. Paul Parks and Recreation. This is NOT the case.

The center WILL be privatized - or as Parks says, it will gain a service partner. BUT this does not mean that the community has no say in what will happen there. The Community Advisory Group is working with Parks to develop a plan for the recreation centers in this area that will assure that the activities that are currently housed at Conway will continue in the area.

But the Mayor has decided that this rec center is next in line to be privatized, along with McDonough Rec Center. That he has not changed his mind about this doesn't mean that our efforts to express how important Conway is to the neighborhood were useless. He is well aware that we are not happy with this decision, and he is well aware that we are unhappy with the process by which it was made. Once our discussions with Parks are completed with regard to Conway, we will revisit the issue of how the City deals with community input.

For the time-being, we remain determined that Conway continues as the center of the community, that neighbors have a say in what happens there in the future, and that it will be a more vibrant place than it has been.

The senior program is fairly guaranteed to remain at this location. All sports activities previously planned for this year will continue through this year...

We apologize if people left the community meeting that was held prior to the holidays still believing that we could change the Mayor's decision. He delayed action on his decision for six months - that was the effect we had - , but he has not changed his decision about finding a nonprofit partner to manage the facility. This is what was announced at the fall meeting - we apologize if it wasn't clear to everyone at that time.