RUMSON HOLDS ITS OARS IN ON CREW SWITCH
At the request of some 50 residents and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High students, the Rumson council on Wednesday revisited its controversial decision to take back the spring rowing program from the school.
And the council isn’t backpaddling on this one.
“We’re still going to move it” to the borough recreation department, where it began four years ago, said Mayor John Ekdahl.
While the move will likely re-peeve the R-FH stalwarts, Ekdahl says there will be virtually no change in the program, only who’s running it. The teams will still compete in the same regattas, rowers will still be able to include their participation on college applications, and the coaching staff including head coach Dan Edwards, who left that role earlier this year will remain intact, Ekdahl said.
“Really, if you’re one of the kids in the program you’ll hardly notice any difference,” Ekdahl said. “That’s why we’re surprised by the outrage, because it’s really the same thing.”
If it’s going to be the same thing, why bring it back to recreation then?
Ekdahl said it will return direct stewardship of the program back to where it started. In 2006, the rec department, through the Rumson Endowment Fund, raised about $300,000 to purchase boats and equipment to launch crew. The borough then bought a small waterfront plot adjacent to Victory Park for access to the Navesink River. The rec department oversaw all crew programs for the first two years, then gave control of spring rowing to R-FH as an experiment.
In that time, crew has taken off, and parents have argued that having it as a high school sport is largely responsible for the boom. But Ekdahl said crew was successful prior to moving to R-FH, and that shouldn’t change when it moves back to recreation’s guidance.
“All things being equal, Rumson crew has the best chance of success going forward by returning to its roots, where the program was established four years prior,” he said in a news release.
The council’s decision finalizes months of dispute over crew.
There was a flutter back in September when the council, citing capacity issues in its summer Learn To Row program, cut Fair Haven from all three of its athletic partnerships, including crew. The two boroughs have since struck deals to make the pact more equitable.
As far as this latest move is concerned, Ekdahl said Fair Haven leadership was consulted and all sides are in agreement with bring crew back to recreation.
“We feel fine with it and so does Fair Haven,” he said. “For the second time we’ve made this decision and we’re sticking to it.”
Dec 24, 2010 @ 09:10:29
Really? What’s the big deal?? If the kids can still use it who cares who runs it as long as it is run correctly. Instead of arguing over this why not find a solution for disturbing drug and alcohol use among the rfh students? Why not create a teen center in town where the kids have a place to go instead of walking or driving around drinking..that building would make a really nice coffee house,,like the inkwell in LB…local bands could play,,just a thought.
Dec 31, 2010 @ 09:12:37
Really, if youre one of the kids in the program youll hardly notice any difference, Ekdahl said. Thats why were surprised by the outrage, because its really the same thing.
The Mayor has answered his own question right here in this quote. The problems are exactly with how the program is run. The parents want a program that will improve over time. We want a competitive program that is well organized, with scheduled practices, and structure. There were issues with supervision of kids on the water, organization, and structure. All issues that the parents were trying to work to improve. All these challenges are probably common to a developing program with a large number of participants. So the fact that there were issues is not a problem in and of itself, its the response to correct root causes to these issues that was very troubling to me as a parent. The obvious answer to why Rumson wants to take it back is that they don’t want to work with the parents to overcome these challenges.