WEST BEND, Wis. — The City of West Bend Parks Department has canceled 15 summer youth programs, including evening tennis lessons, STEM camps, and Saturday swim lessons, due to a staff vacancy.
Parks, Recreation & Forestry Director Mike Jentsch said the department's activities supervisor took a new job elsewhere. Because the department operates without taxpayer dollars, they had no other option but to cut about one-third of their summer programming.
"When that one position becomes vacant like it has, we cannot continue to function with all of our programming and all of our other responsibilities," Jentsch said. “Our programming pays for itself. So, every time we cut a program, we are cutting some form of revenue. So, we don’t want to cut programs. It’s not making my life easier, it’s not, it’s making my life harder and more challenging.”
The supervisor was responsible for several tasks, including running background checks on seasonal employees, managing coaches, and delivering equipment.
West Bend parent Cloe Tousey said her 9-year-old daughter was hoping to participate in the affordable spring-summer track program, which was among the cancellations.
"My nine-year-old was not happy. She was really bummed, and there were tears involved," Tousey said. "We rely on that! The kids love it, it keeps them occupied, and it was very disappointing. I don’t feel like we got a real response or answer as to why this happened."
TMJ4 News took Tousey's and similar questions emailed to the station from another parent to the city.
"I completely understand the frustrations from our residents," Jentsch said. "We don’t want to lose them. Those are our customers. We have to run our rec division as it is a private business; we don’t want to cancel programs because that has a negative impact on our customers."
Two-thirds of the summer programming will remain open, including the Aquapark at Regnor Park and the Mud Run.
The parks dept. emailed out a list of the canceled programs as follows:
- All Saturday swimming lessons
- Recreation in Regner van transportation
- Evening archery
- Evening little hoopers basketball
- Evening little hitters baseball + t-ball
- Evening kicks for kids soccer
- Evening tennis lessons
- Evening gymnastics
- Evening sporties for shorties
- All Regner playground rocks
- All camp Regner offerings
- Both family fun runs
- All t-ball and softball leagues
- Both end of summer tennis camps
- STEM camps
Jentsch said the city hopes to fill the supervisor position by July to ensure fall programs are not impacted, and so they can bring back the canceled events for spring and summer of 2027.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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