The Garden City Telegram
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A visit home
Published 8/16/2008 in None : Other Sports
By BRETT MARSHALL
bmarshall@gctelegram.com
For Brian Bascue and Michael Meadors, returning to Garden City to play in the annual Southwest Kansas Recreation Scholarship Fund golf event is an easy decision.
It's just easier for one to come back and more complicated for the other.
Both were in Garden City for the SWKR fund-raiser, which goes into a scholarship fund awarded annually to a graduating senior planning to attend college and major in some form of parks and recreation management. The scholarship is for $500 assistant superintendent Donna Gerstner said, and it goes into the college of choice treasury and helps pay for tuition and fees.
Bascue, who was the superintendent at the Garden City Recreation Commission from 1996-2001, has been making an almost yearly pilgrimage to participate in the fund-raiser.
"I wouldn't miss it because it is so much fun to get back here and see people with whom I've worked and to see other friends," said Bascue, now the superintendent at the Newton Recreation Commission. "You get to play on a really good golf course which is one of the great facilities in the state of Kansas."
Meadors, who left Garden City in 1979, has been employed for 22 years by the Johnson County Parks & Recreation Commission. The last seven have been serving as its director. In the 15 years before he was superintendent of recreation.
"We've got about 9,500 acres of land and about 5,400 of that is developed," said Meadors, whose father Dale is a well known coach in Garden City. "We provide about 4,000 programs to the community and there are eight parks that we supervise."
While Meadors is in a bigger environment in Johnson County, Bascue opted to move to Newton to place him in closer proximity to his son in Wichita.
"It has allowed me to be closer to my family although I have family in Garden as well," Bascue said.
Bascue said Newton, which has a smaller population than Garden City, offers a variety of programs similar in nature, but slightly different.
"We have a bigger community center than Garden City and we have more members that utilize the facility," Bascue said. "But I think Garden City has so much going for it because they've been committed to the financial support through the years for all the great facilities they now have."
Bascue said the construction of the Tangeman Sports Complex and the Martin Esquivel Soccer Park as two major projects completed under his watch. Bascue contributes much of what he was able to accomplish in Garden City to Paul Lewis, who is now the superintendent at the Dodge City Recreation Commission.
"Pau got the first phase in place and made my job much easier," Bascue said.
Meadors, who earned his degree in parks and recreation management with a minor in environmental biology, said he wanted to work in the field of wildlife biology.
"I get to do some of the environmental work that I find exciting in my job with the Johnson County Parks & Recreation," Meadors said. "I think the thing that I remember most when working on the field crews in Garden is that I know how many people it takes to make events happen. Garden has always been blessed with people who step up and get things done."
Both Bascue and Meadors agreed that funding for parks and recreation commissions has become increasingly difficult. They have had to become more creative in their ability to fund programs and building projects.
"It's more a fee-based support system than it used to be," Meadors said. "We're now seeing the baby boomers who want to have the same recreational opportunities that they had when they played at a younger age."
Bascue concurred how Newton was managing the financially troubling times in Kansas.
"It's just harder to get funds and we have to be more proactive in how we talk to people about support," said Bascue.
The former GCRC superintendent said what keeps him positive about the job is its unpredictability.
"It's different every day, there is a different challenge," Bascue said. "As long as people desire to have recreational programs there will be a need for organizations like the one (in Garden) and others.
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