Rec board hosts meet and greet

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent 
 
The Newcastle Recreation Board is inviting the community to attend its 6 p.m. Meet and Greet meeting at Pinnacle Bank on Tuesday, Feb. 16, to “let people know who we are, what we’re about, and what we do with their money,” according to President Tony Sandoval. The board is funded by taxes, and the money is distributed in various ways to promote community recreation, so Sandoval and officer-at-large Tom Voss said they want the community to be aware of how they are using the money and to create transparency. 
The meet and greet will be an open forum to allow the community to increase their knowledge about the board, as well as present their own ideas. 
“We want to give people a chance to ask questions,” Voss said.
Even if the rec board doesn’t fund a project financially, it helps in other areas by pointing people in the right direction for where their next step should be. 
“We’re also a hub of information for the community to come to with ideas,” Sandoval said.  
The board is allotted $30,000 every year, and through the years it has financially supported the summer baseball and softball programs, the summer rec program hosted by Weston County School District No. 1, the Newcastle Stingrays Swim Team, the Weston County Arts Council and other organizations. Sandoval said that board members are always looking for ways to “hopefully bring about more activities.”
“There’s a lot of heart in that and a lot of togetherness,” Sandoval said. 
The most recent project that has come to the board’s attention is putting an ice-skating rink in town. Although the board hasn’t funded the project yet, Voss said it did help the interested community members form a nonprofit organization. The board also wants to support a youth hockey team in the future, according to Sandoval. Sandoval hopes to host competitions for the Black Hills area and Wyoming because of Newcastle’s unique location in both areas. 
Another idea is putting in a splash pad at Centennial Park for the summer to bring more attractions to the community’s parks. It’s also an inexpensive means of providing a skating rink in the winter. He said  that being a small town doesn’t mean we can’t have things to do that larger cities like Rapid City have, because population shouldn’t matter when it comes to improving communities. 
Sandoval believes the rec board is important because it helps Newcastle look at other avenues besides fossil fuels to be a more “robust town” and benefit its future. By increasing recreation, it increases tourism, which brings in more revenue to local business, he explained. 
“I like to look towards the future to see what it can be,” Sandoval said. 
He wants outsiders to enjoy the comfortable hometown feeling that Newcastle offers, so they will want to return.
“That (hometown feeling) is something that felt like (it was) worth sharing,” Sandoval said. 
Additionally, the board wants to be a financial support for local recreation programs to ensure that they can keep going. 
“We need the community to know we’re here,” Sandoval said. While it is required for these organizations to do their own fundraising before receiving money from the board, he said, the rec board is there to “give you a hand up.” 
“We’re very proud to help these people,” Voss said. 
Both Sandoval and Voss said they got involved with the rec board because their community is important to them, and Voss said he wants “to make Newcastle a better place for all of us.”
Other board members include Treasurer Katrina Malone, Secretary Deb Larson, Misty Harrington and Naomi Miglia. Voss said they would like to have as many as nine members. Anyone interested in joining can come to the meet and greet for more information. He encourages everyone to come to the meeting. Snacks will be provided. 
“We want people who have ideas to feel that they can approach us with their ideas,” Sandoval said.