When Carl Graziano and his wife, Sandy, signed up for memberships to the Glenwood Community Center in 2007, they thought they had struck quite a deal.

In September of that year, employees at the Cooksville center sold the Grazianos three $5 membership cards with expiration dates 92 years in the future.

But now, as the county faces continued budget shortfalls and departments scrape for funds, the Mount Airy couple is being asked to pay a $100 annual fee for themselves and their two children ($25 per person) to use the center, which opened in 2006.

Carl Graziano said he understands the charge is minimal. Still, he has written county officials, asking the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks to honor the previously purchased membership, which he says center staff told his family was a lifetime agreement.
 
“(We) signed up right when it opened,” Graziano said. “At the time they were basically marketing it as a lifetime membership.”

Gary Arthur, director for the county’s Recreation and Parks Department, said he does not know which staff members advertised the cards that way, but there was never an official lifetime membership promotion.

The arbitrary expiration date, in this case 2099, was necessary for community center computers to print receipts, he said.

“What they received was a one-time ID pass for $5 and that got them into the center,” Arthur said. “We did that as a promotion for the center because that was one of the first community centers we opened.”

Cathleen Winter, who lives in Cooksville, said that in September 2008 she, too, was sold what she was told was a $5 lifetime membership. She said she wants the community center to honor that agreement.
 
The 2099 expiration date is misleading, she said.
 
“At the time I repeatedly asked about the $15 family fee for life because I could not believe it,” Winter wrote in an e-mail.

Smattering of complaints

In June 2009, community center officials announced the fees would be imposed as of Sept. 28, 2009.
 
Of the 8,300 people with the $5 membership cards at Glenwood, three have complained about the $25 fee, Arthur said. Another 1,200 have signed up under the new fees.

“Our intent is never to turn anybody away from the Glenwood Center that wants to participate because of economics,” Arthur said.

He said the $5 membership holders will not be grandfathered into the new system, as the Grazianos and Winter requested.
 
Arthur’s department always planned to charge a fee, but because Glenwood was the county’s first community center, officials wanted to give residents a chance to test it out, he said.
 
“We wanted people to have the chance to explore it and see how their families were going to use it,” he said.

He said there was never a defined end date for the $5 cards, and the department ran the promotion as long as they could afford to do so.

The center, which cost $10.5 million to build, cost $381,000 to operate in fiscal 2009, Arthur said.

Less than half of those costs were covered by the center’s $162,000 in revenue from fees for community rooms, parties and weddings.
 
Arthur said he expects to generate $110,000 annually from the new $25 fee.

The North Laurel Community Center, which is on track to open next winter, will have similar fees, he said.  Arthur said the new center probably will have a similar $5 promotion, which, depending on the economy, would last for about a year.

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user comments (9)

user independent says...

County Official Goes Back on Word would be a better title for this article. Our officials, both appointed and elected have nearly all failed us. It's time to clean house, voters.

Posted 6:57 AM, 01.12.10 | Permalink

user strawberryfields says...

Seriously? People are complaining about paying a $25 annual fee? That's $2 a month! Isn't it worth $2 a month to have a brand new community center to use whenever you want, than to have nothing at all? They'd be paying a lot more than that if CA were their only option. I think it's great that Rec & Parks is providing an reasonable alternative to expensive gyms.

Posted 12:05 PM, 01.12.10 | Permalink

user citizentaxpayerjane says...

And sheila dixon should be re-elected forever because she only took a few bucks from the destitute people in her city, right strawberry? People need to do what they say they're going to do. Without that, we'll have to unseat every incumbent this year and get some better people appointed to these positions where you can sell citizens one bill of goods and charge them something unilaterally determined outside of a contract.

Posted 12:39 PM, 01.12.10 | Permalink

user keepmovingforward says...

Is this what Civility in Howard County is all about? It's "civil" because it is only a few bucks they are cheating us out of? Where is the line of morality drawn... $25, $100, $1,000? What are we teaching our kids about "when the going gets tough" go back on your word, cheat and steal to get ahead?

Posted 2:13 PM, 01.12.10 | Permalink

user cgrazian says...

I'm one of the residents quoted in the article. Important point of clarification: The county is now charging $25 a year *per person* to use the center - not $25 for our entire family, as the article incorrectly states. Another point not made clear in the story: the community center's staff more than once during the registration process, enthusiastically promoted the membership as a "lifetime" membership, using that word specifically. Also, the claim that the computer system required an "arbitrary" expiration date to print a receipt simply doesn't hold water. Why would a program be designed to accept and process an expiration date (labeled as such on the printed membership agreement/receipt) and then accept only an arbitrary date (and one 92 years in the future, at that)? More plausible is that the program couldn't accept alphanumeric characters, such as would be needed to indicate "lifetime," and, as an alternative, center workers punched in the most distant numeric date the computer would accept, reasoning that few if any county residents would live to see 2099 (effectively making it a "lifetime" agreement). Most important, I want to make clear that we don't dispute the county's right to change its fee policy for new memberships. We're simply asking that the county honor its original agreement with us and other families who signed up under the original offer.

Posted 7:58 AM, 01.14.10 | Permalink

user cgrazian says...

strawberryfields: I realize this might sound like we're arguing about chump change here. But as I said in my previous post, the new fee is $25 a person, so $100 annually for my family of four. Still, that sounds like a bargain, right? Problem is, all that covers is access to the gymnasium (hoops and walking track) and a small game room. If you want a "fitness pass" to use the workout room/equipment, that's an additional fee - $263 a year for 100 visits for residents. Also, the center charges rental fees for its community rooms and additional fees for other activities, such as weight training. The point is the new annual fee doesn't get you full use of the facility. If I wanted to join a fee-based gym, I would have done that in the private sector. I don't expect to pay hefty annual fees for a taxpayer-funded facility that you and I paid to build, and continue to fund through county taxes. Interesting to note that across the parking lot from the community center is the Glenwood branch library - a beautiful facility that offers my family more benefits onsite and online than the community center (and that I suspect has a much higher operating cost) and there's no fee - other than my taxes - required to use it. Should we start charging for that, too?

Posted 1:24 PM, 01.14.10 | Permalink

user observer says...

Get a life, central Marylanders. Outside the Baltimore-Washington "bubble", we've got 12%+ unemployment. There are no crowds at the local mall, people can't get jobs. Pay your darn fees and be grateful for your government (or government contract) jobs.

Posted 10:56 PM, 01.14.10 | Permalink

user patdornan says...

My family doesn't even use the facility. I went through their mandatory fitness room overview, only to be told at the end that it would cost $263 for 100 days, or over $800 per year to use a relatively bush-league array of equipment. I bought an exercise bike.

Posted 6:22 AM, 01.15.10 | Permalink

user westcountyresident says...

Mr. Graziano is correct - they are asking $25 per person per year ($100 for my family of four) and this only gives you access to the basketball court and walking track, not the fitness center. The memberships were in fact advertised as lifetime and as part of an ongoing Howard County wellness campaign. This center is also a safe, afterschool option for local middle school students. These types of services are already paid for by tax dollars.

Posted 7:32 AM, 01.15.10 | Permalink