Newtown’s Latest Shortage: Gyms

By Steve Bigham

Much has been made in recent years about the town’s shortage of ball fields, but as winter approaches, another variation on the theme of inadequate sports facilities is emerging: the lack of gym space.

The gym shortage has arisen as the school population and the number of Parks & Recreation participants continue to increase. This year, for the first time, something had to get bumped. In this case, it was the Parks & Recreation-sponsored adult drop-in basketball, which has been reduced from two nights a week to just one (it had been twice a week for more than 20 years). The cut was brought on by the high school’s recent expansion of the color guard program, which now sports three different teams.

“It’s a school activity and school activities take precedence. We’ve known forever that schools have first priority,” noted Parks & Recreation Director Barbara Kasbarian. “Outside, we can always seem to find an additional area of grass where teams can at least practice. Inside is different, however. You have a gym and that’s all basketball can play in.”

Mrs Kasbarian described the gym shortage as “critical” and said it “may reach the point where we might have to limit enrollment. As soon as next year.”

Currently, many of the younger youth basketball teams are forced to share a gym with another team. One team practices on one end and another practices on the other. The gyms are also closed to the public for school holidays, snow days, early dismissal, parent-teacher conferences, etc.

“We are at the point now where a lot of our programs have no continuity. Out of an eight-week session, you may have two or three cancellations, so programs get dragged out to 12 weeks,” Mrs Kasbarian said.

The NHS color guard’s expanded use of the gym space has only served to illustrate the problem, which Jack Shpunt, president of the Newtown Youth Basketball Association, calls the situation a giant mess.

“The color guard cut us back four nights. They’re also taking Saturday afternoons right in the middle of our games with no consideration that we had to rearrange our schedule to accommodate them,” he said.

Mr Shpunt said he has tried to work with the color guard program with no success. He fears that the boys’ and girls’ senior basketball league is in jeopardy of being cut significantly.

“We’re going to have to turn people away this year for the first time ever. We’re going to try to get everybody, but I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do it,” Mr Shpunt said, pointing out that the need for more ball fields, a much-talked about issue in town, is “artificial.”

“The only reason they need fields is because they are playing out of season. The real problem is the gym shortage,” he said.

Because of this “acute” shortage, Mrs Kasbarian is an advocate for a community center with a gym. Last month, she joined Newtown resident Lin Hertberg for a tour of the Police Athletic League (PAL) building, which was constructed in Danbury two years ago, complete with gymnasium and meeting rooms. A similar facility in Newtown would be ideal, Mr Hertberg said. It’s just a matter of coming up with the land. The money has already been lined up.

“I think there is a tremendous need, not only for gym space, but also for meeting rooms – a quality place where they could engage in their activities,” Mr Hertberg said.

Of course, the town’s pending purchase of Fairfield Hills is expected to play a big part in solving the problem. Plymouth Hall, which lies near the center of the campus, served as the hospital’s recreational facility and could serve as an ideal community center for the town.

“If the town does purchase Fairfield Hills, we might take the financing that we had lined up and help the town reconstruct Plymouth Hall,” Mr Hertberg said. “We’re kind of in limbo at this point. We’d like to move forward, but we’re stymied by the Fairfield Hills situation.”

The state is expected to offer the town a selling price for the 185-acre campus in the coming weeks.