Archive: Around Town

The new Lansing Parks & Recreation Department summer programs booklet has been released.  Recreation Director Steve Colt says he hopes parents will sign up their children early to help planning and make sure they get into programs they want.  Programs include a myriad of camps and programs for all interests, including day camps, tennis camp, track, orchestra, band, private string lessons, art, free yoga at Myers Park, golf, bowling, horse back riding, soccer camp, fly fishing, reading, swimming, theater, cheerleading, cooking, quilting, sailing, robotics, football, and a session on pollinators.

"It's the most diverse offering package that we have," says Colt.  "I really like that.  It's really important to me, and important overall to have a lot of different offerings to reach a broader spectrum of participants.  When you think of recreation it's not just about a certain shape of ball and organized games.  It's music.  It's drama. It's art.  It's robotics.  Cooking.  In fact one of the cooking camps is already sold out and we've only been at this for about two weeks.  It's, by far, our broadest range of offerings, and that's the way it should be."


Artist Robin Schuttenberg created the cover depicting a a scene Lansingites will certainly recognize as a staple of summer at Myers Park: cayakers and a canoe in Cayuga Lake in front of the iconic Lansing lighthouse.  Schuttenberg has created covers for the booklet for at least a half dozen years.  Colt says that Recreation Supervisor Patrick Tyrrell has spruced up the booklet offerings with new art, as well.


While the slate is quite full for this summer two staples of the summer booklet are missing this year, due to construction in the Lansing schools.  All three gymnasiums are closed for construction, which means there is no place to hold the popular summer basketball camps.

"These (construction projects) are all good things in the long run, but they'll be safer, better, nicer," Colt says. "It puts a little cramp in our style, but that's OK.  It's a part of using it.  That's just going to be on hold.  It's going to be postponed for a year, or we may offer it at another time of the year.  It just doesn't work out right now."

Also disappointing is the third year in a row the Lansing High School pool is not usable.  For the last two summers it was closed for repairs, as earlier repairs were found to be faulty.  This summer the pool itself is OK, but between electrical and other construction work in the high school it is not feasible to open the pool.

"Even though the pool itself is OK, it's being affected by some electrical jobs that will shut down the water purification, the pumps, the heater, and the lights," Colt explains. "There is also some asbestos mitigation in other parts of the building that you'd have to go through to get to the pool.  We did carve out one week of swim lessons in August.  So instead of being at the front end of our summer package, it's closer to the back end.  We're going to go in between sessions when the varsity swim team gets started.  It's not a lot, but we just felt we need to offer at least one week to get us back in the game, so to speak.  Next year we hope we'll have a full offering again."

The booklet also features a sports scholarship offered by the family of Kyle 'Booie' Arrison, who was tragically killed at age 20 in an automobile accident on Triphammer Road last August.

"He was a kid that went through all our programs and graduated from Lansing," Colt says. "He was killed in a bad accident on Triphammer Road about a year ago.  To keep his name alive the family has set up a scholarship fund in his name."

This summer Bowling Camp is going to be at Helen Newman Lanes on the Cornell Campus.  Colt says kids will experience the same lanes and coach as the Varsity Bowling team.

"Bill LaRock, who manages that facility for Cornell is a Lansing guy," Colt says. "He really helped us a lot to get that space for our camp this summer. Lee Christopher will lead that program for us.  It's really nice, because it's also the same location and person that coaches the varsity bowling team.  It's nice that we can do it with Lee involved."

The summer booklet is available at the Recreation Department office in the Lansing Town Hall, and may be downloaded on the Parks Recreation Department Web site.

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