All five candidates running for County Board say they will protect the Barcroft Sports & Fitness Center and its gymnastics programming from elimination.
Candidate James DeVita said that, if elected, he “absolutely” would support both.
“Any time you take something like that away, Arlington loses,” said DeVita, one of two challengers to incumbent Matt de Ferranti in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary.
DeVita, de Ferranti and the third primary contender, Julie Farnam, joined independent candidates Audrey Clement and David Sisson at a July 20 candidate forum sponsored by the Douglas Park Civic Association. The future of the Barcroft facility was the first question posed by civic association president Steve Jordan Tomaszewski.
Earlier this year, County Manager Mark Schwartz proposed eliminating the Arlington Aerials and Arlington Tigers gymnastics programs, long housed at the Barcroft facility, and closing the center for a year to examine its physical condition.
After significant community pushback, County Board members overturned Schwartz’s recommendation. While the gymnastics programs survived, fees were raised to recoup more of the government’s spending on operational costs.
De Ferranti said he was committed to continuing the program, but “how we continue it is also a key question.”
“We have to make fiscally restrained and responsible choices,” de Ferranti said.
Sisson, the lone candidate making his first bid for elected office, said he supported continuing gymnastics programming but that fees would need to increase, at least in the short term, to fund it.
Clement and Farnam said the proposal to eliminate gymnastics, and another controversial plan to close the Cherrydale branch library, wouldn’t have been needed if county leaders made better use of the $1.7 billion in annual budget revenue.
“We haven’t been responsible — we haven’t prioritized what we need to spend money on,” Farnam said.
“The blame lies with the County Board,” said Clement, asserting that “outsized” salaries for public safety employees are crowding out other community needs.
In the end, both the gymnastics program and the Cherrydale Library survived the budget ax as the County Board increased the real estate tax rate by 2 cents this year.
The Douglas Park Civic Association was among those that worked to prevent the closure of the Barcroft facility and gymnastics programming.
“Fortunately, common sense prevailed,” Tomaszewski said in a report to members after the candidate forum.
He said the residents of Douglas Park will support efforts to craft a long-term solution for the center and its programs.
“We don’t want this to be the punching bag of the budget every year,” Tomaszewski said. “We are standing by as a civic association to see what we can do. We don’t want to see another surprise in the budget next year.”
