WPCNR MR. & MS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. June 17, 2005: In a commentary on How to Run Against Mayor Delfino, WPCNR referenced a Department of Recreation and Parks policy of instituting heavy franchise fees on ice-skating instructors at Ebersole  Rink as evidence of poor recreation department management. A reader who works at the Ebersole Rink disagrees:

John, you said "........just as they are changing policies for the worse on the city skating rink, for example, charging instructors heavy franchise fees before they can teach lessons there.

As a city employee at the ice rink I take exception to that comment. Why shouldn't they pay fees for using a public venue to make a profit? It takes a lot of time, money, and manpower to run the rink. The instructors should get a free ride? Theres more to it then meets the eye. We have to open the rink early for them and they walk around like they own the place. Who is responsible if a skating student gets hurt trying a manuever, can the city get sued? They should not get a free ride while making a profit. If they are so concerned about the "fees" they have to pay, I'm sure the city would not charge them if they did not charge their "pupils"

I would like to stay anonomous

The CitizeNetReporter Replies:

WPCNR does not believe making them pay is the issue. Instructors in past traded public group lesson instruction supervision at the rink for the right to teach private lessons. Rink and Instructors worked together. Last September this was shattered.

The family atmosphere at Ebersole Rink that has made it such a nice place for my daughter to grow up at, make friends with older girls, and learn how that to get good at a skill, you have to keep working and working at it  -- is created by the quality of the instructors there.

When the Department of Recreation & Parks instituted the franchise fees amounting to approximately $400 per instructor, last September, they did so about one week before the rink was to open, after instructors had already made their arrangements as to where they would be instructing. (I.e., not giving instructors time to put the fee into their financial plans, not consulting them on the setting of the fees)

It was just done.

This is not a way to treat instructors who have created one of the best things about recreation in White Plains, Ebersole Rink. It was callous, thoughtless and an uninformed decision. Authorities making this decision made it without even understanding how the rink-instructor system functioned.

I submit that is no way to treat anyone, let alone a staff that is the backbone of a program.

Remember you have no program without instructors people like and an atmosphere that is safe, touchy-feely and pleasant. Ebersole has that. How long they will have an "instructor team that works together" remains to be seen thanks to the way that franchise fee policy was implemented.

JB