Today’s Parks and Community Services Department is quite different from its humble beginnings in May of 1965. Fifty years ago the city council authorized a Parks and Recreation Department with a budget of a mere $30,000. According to news reports of the time the department opened an office at Fire Station #2 at the southwest corner of Yosemite Avenue and Q Street with assets of a typewriter and two record players.
Today, the population of the city is nearly four times what it was in 1965 and the department has worked hard to keep up with the growth of the city by adding parks, facilities and programs that benefit everyone from youth to seniors.
With still mostly minimal staff, Parks and Community Services Department Director Mary Anne Seay spoke highly of the support from citizens and service clubs who volunteer. “From coaching in the T-ball and youth basketball programs to helping maintain the Vernon McCullough Fresno River Trail, and park maintenance and beautification, the department always needs to keep working hard for our citizens, and we are proud of the community’s and the city council’s support of our programs, parks and facilities,” said Seay.
Mayor Robert Poythress was equally enthusiastic about the community’s support. “Thousands of our citizens each year are involved in children’s sports, volunteering though their service clubs and churches or other organizations. Our residents are spending their most precious commodity, time, to make our city and future of our residents brighter,” said Poythress...