April 04, 2016 the Community Development Planning Committee directed the planning department to begin the development of a community recreation complex. The Planning Department has engaged a process which will gather information from the community, decipher and prioritize interests, evaluate current facilities and offerings, review previous studies to determine which information is outdated and requires updating, and identify trends in so called “wants and needs” of the community.
Previous studies conducted in 1997 and 2007 for a similar facility yielded a “wants and needs” list of the community. Such offerings, to highlight a few, have included; swim facilities, youth pool inclusive of wet area play, sauna and steam rooms; weight training equipment, self-defense programs, arts and crafts programs, community rooms for party and large group functions, youth programs, team sports, larger gymnasium, sports training facilities, elderly programs and health programs which are directed at getting members more active.
We often hear comments such as; we have these programs and facilities, why not just add on to what we already have? It seems however, that we are always trying to fit a square peg into a round hole by buying buildings and fitting programs into them or stretching a squirrel skin to cover an elephant. Recreational programs are an ever changing community asset. We have experienced sports such as baseball and boxing as strong competitive sports back in the day. We have had some great athletes participate in these programs and we have enjoyed these awesome performances. Both sports have however lost participation. This can be attributable to a number of issues which might include personal interests, and adequate facilities. Boxing is making a comeback along with other self-defense arts. A Boxing workout has recently been considered one of the fastest growing forms of physical training by young professionals. We are unfortunately not in a position to address this interest, as we do not have the facilities anymore. Baseball is played on fields that seem to have been there forever. With the growth of Lacrosse, competition for players is changing from baseball to Lacrosse. Ten years ago surveys indicated no interest in Lacrosse. Until recent we did not have adequate fields to host tournaments or games. With the growth of strong participant interest a new field, Flying Leaf Lacrosse Field, was developed at Flying leaf Housing Site complete with field irrigation and a new scoreboard. This was the first project that had an irrigation system installed as part of the development on the reservation, so the field must be considered as an important asset to have.
Sports and recreation trends are a chameleon and our Fitness and Recreation department has done a great job in addressing the communities “wants and needs”. We are trying to bring the focus to all of our community and to accomplish the goal of healthy living and the well-being of membership. Getting active and building a strong community core are fundamental in a healthy community and a strong fire.
To define what a new community recreation center might include, a survey is being conducted to help us access and update the community’s “wants and needs”. We have completed the first phase of this three part survey by reaching out to providers of the appropriate Health Center staff, the High School staff and the Fitness and Recreation staff. The second part of the survey is directed towards the users of the fitness/recreational programs and facilities. This survey can be found on the Oneida Nation website. Follow this link to find and complete. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/OneidaCommCtr A third phase survey will be sent out to further define trends and preferences with different user groups.
As we gather information and begin the process of reaching out to the community we will start putting shape and form to this project. We are living in an exciting time to see our community grow and take advantage of new opportunities. Yaw^ko.
