Youth in poverty need equal opportunities to play

Financial assistance to enable youth in poverty to participate in sports programs was brought up during the City Council meeting Tuesday night by councilmember Robb Casseday.

             The Mayor agreed to discuss this issue in the future to see if any funding can be given to youth in poverty to cover Greeley Recreation Center’s sports program costs.

“There has always been a need for this issue to be addressed. We have wanted to offer more aid, but it comes down to a budgeting issue,” said Andy McRoberts, Leisure Services Director.

McRoberts said that it is a challenge to find additional funds to offset program costs.

Some solutions briefly suggested by Casseday and McRoberts were grants by the police department and fundraising. Casseday said he thinks they can get the Greeley Police Department to fund youth more because being in sports keeps kids off the streets and out of trouble.

Casseday said that currently there is a youth assistance fund that is supporting qualified students, but is not funded enough to give all poverty students a chance to play.

“All youth benefit from being in extracurricular activities because they learn how to work as a team, communicate and be an effective leader,” McRoberts said.

In addition to sports, McRoberts said that they should also look at funding other programs to incorporate those who don’t like playing sports.

Robb Casseday wins despite citizens’ disinterest for city government

Councilmember Robb Casseday has represented the at-large council seat for the City of Greeley Council since February. In the most current election concluding Nov. 1, Casseday ran against Scott A. Royer and Neil K. Chikazawa for the seat, and won.

“I think that Robb is qualified for the position not because of his platform, but more based off his experience. He was appointed by council and now has months of experience,” said Stacey Campbell, Casseday’s campaign manager. 

Councilmember Casseday was originally elected in February when Maria Secrest resigned her at-large council position and accepted a position with Representative Cory Gardner. 

Casseday is a Greeley native. Before being a councilmember, he served Greeley by being on the Planning Commission as well as many other boards and committees in Greeley. He currently holds a chair for the Public Works Committee, is a member for the Finance Committee and is an alternate member for the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization. 

Greeley residents hope that his recent win will enable Casseday to make some positive changes partnering with the other city council members and the mayor. 

“I really hope that this next season city government will focus on promoting Greeley. If we can get someone in power to show that they support Greeley, it might help people care about city government more,” said Deanne Helmboldt, a Greeley resident and one of Casseday’s friends. 

Several Greeley residents commented that they have observed a decrease in people caring about city government.

“I think people are voting less today than they were even 10 years ago. People think their votes don’t count or they are cynical of the system and think that people are getting elected from the inside,” real-estate broker Valerie Scheffer said.

Adding to the apathy for city government is the world’s shift to being technology focused. It seems that the younger generation is more interested in spending an hour on Facebook than attending a city council meeting. Incorporating technology may have to be the next step to ignite a passion for politics. 

“In the future, city government needs to use more social media. This will allow them to be proactive in informing citizens about what is going on and allow citizens to give their feedback and thoughts,” Campbell said. 

Campbell noted that he thinks people were not interested in the city council elections in particular because there were not any huge government issues driving people to the poles. 

The assumed disinterest didn’t seem to hurt Casseday’s chance for election. Results show that Casseday won the election with over 50 percent of the votes.