MESSAGE FROM MAYOR TIM GREIMEL

January 30, 2023


Selection of Site for Youth Recreation Program

In the last few weeks, there has been quite a bit of discussion on the City of Pontiac's efforts to secure a permanent site to house our Youth Recreation and Enrichment Programs. Understandably, the community has been frustrated by the previous administration’s lack of progress toward purchasing a youth recreation facility.


This administration and council agree that the City should not pay rent for a youth recreation facility it doesn’t own. That’s why, upon taking office a year ago, the current administration: immediately terminated a lease by which the City had previously been paying $26,000 per month, launched an exhaustive review of all potential sites in the City, and narrowed the list of possibilities to the two best locations for purchase. Following extensive dialogue at a public council meeting and after hearing feedback from residents, the city council authorized an offer to buy (rather than lease) the Wisner property from the school district.


We had many meetings over a number of months with the school district, including its superintendent, school board president, and school board facilities committee, during which we repeatedly tried to facilitate purchasing the Wisner site. When the school district never placed the matter on its agenda, we sent an email to the school district’s president formally asking him to do so. Although we are disappointed by the school district’s decision to not sell the Wisner site and by the school district’s failure to make a counteroffer as we suggested, we accept their decision.


As approved by city council, the City is now moving forward with the acquisition of the former McCarroll School site for a community center that will house the City’s youth recreation programming. This site has many advantages, including a very central location, its proximity to two of the City’s largest parks (Aaron-Perry and Oakland parks), and its proximity to the new Pontiac Skatepark. The center will be either entirely new construction or mostly new construction to ensure that our community’s young people have the state-of-the-art facility they deserve.


In the meantime, the City launched dozens of robust youth recreation programs last year with a thousand city youth participating last summer alone. We also began a partnership with the Pontiac School District last year, by which the City is utilizing all of the district’s elementary schools for afterschool programming.


We encourage you to enroll a young person today. Call 248-758-3037 or log on to: pontiacrecreation.recdesk.com!


Sincerely,


Tim Greimel

Mayor

Scan the QR code below to access City of Pontiac

Youth Recreation and Enrichment Program information.