For the first time in 47 years, Harry Waters is not a member of the Emporia Recreation Commission.
Waters’ last day on the board was Monday. Several members of his family came to the afternoon meeting, along with City Manager Matt Zimmerman and former recreation director Lee Beran.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius also sent her best wishes to Waters, the longest-serving recreation commissioner in the state of Kansas.
“The impact you have made on Emporia over the past 47 years is immeasurable,” Sebelius wrote. “I share in the appreciation of Emporia State University and the Emporia Recreation Commission in celebrating all of your many accomplishments. ...
“Since coming to our state, you have worked selflessly to make Emporia a better place to be and I thank you for your service.”
Besides the governor’s letter, Waters also received a plaque from the recreation commission and a birdhouse — with a grocery bag full of birdseed — from the staff of the Lee Beran Recreation Center.
“You talk about the birds and feeding the birds every day, so we got you this,” recreation director Tom McEvoy said. “We figured it’s something you can look at every day — and it looks like a park shelter!”
For a moment, Waters had to search for words.
“My goodness,” he said. “This is way too much. I should be giving things to you folks for letting me work with you.”
Waters came to Emporia in 1953 — the same year the Emporia Recreation Commission was founded — to work at ESU. He was athletic director at the university in 1960 when he was asked to join the recreation commission.
McEvoy also had one other surprise for Waters. During the commission’s budget discussions, McEvoy put up a copy of the board’s 1960 budget. Back then, it was one page long and came to about $28,000 for the year. The projected budget for next year, by contrast, runs for more than 80 pages and comes to over $1.9 million.
“I thought that ($28,000) was monthly,” commission chairman Roger Hartsook said, as the rest of the commission chuckled and smiled. “But that’s the entire year!”
Finally, it came time to say good-bye.
“It’s bittersweet, Thomas, Roger and all you guys,” Waters said. “But I’ll think about you every time I feed the birds.”
In other business:
• The recreation commission briefly reviewed the preliminary budget figures for 2007-2008. A formal hearing will be held July 16. About half of the recreation commission’s funding comes from taxes and half from its own fees, charges, and similar revenues.
• Hartsook and McEvoy announced that the bid specifications had finally been released for a new heating and cooling system for the indoor swimming pool. Bids will be taken June 12. The city commission first agreed to pay $62,550 toward a replacement in March 2006 and the recreation commission voted to cover the remaining cost that May, but after that nothing happened. In October, then-interim City Manager Mark McAnarney apologized for the delay.
• The recreation center may be looking at renovating its locker rooms, including reducing the number of lockers and putting floor drains into the locker area. McEvoy said that the locker room floors have been deteriorating quickly and that out of the 270 lockers in both rooms, no more than 20 typically get used at one time.