Pomona : Recreation Funds Increased

The Pomona City Council has allocated $60,241 to step up recreation programs and begin other projects to keep youngsters away from gangs and drugs.

Recommended by Councilwoman Nell Soto and the Community Action for Peace Committee, the program will double to 16 the number of sites offering after-school recreation programs. The new sites are Decker, Harrison, Kellogg, Kingsley, Lincoln, Madison, Mendoza and Montvue elementary schools.

The city will use $8,520 to partially subsidize fees for participants in basketball, cheerleading, track and field, and other sports, and $7,537 to pay for trips to attractions such as Disneyland and the California Museum of Science and Industry.

About $10,000 will be spent to begin a project to plant trees in the names of youngsters who pledge not to take drugs.

The council approved the program unanimously, although Councilman Mark A. T. Nymeyer questioned the value of paying for trips to Disneyland.

Instead of sending children to an amusement park with their peers, he said, the city should encourage them to take part in activities with their parents. “The more (such excursions) we have to help the disadvantaged,” he said, “the more we drive families apart. . . . You can go to Disneyland until you are blue in the face, but you still have to come home.”