Background

The Gerry Kulick Community Center is the City of Ferndale’s indoor/year-round public recreation facility and home to the City’s Department of Parks and Recreation. The Kulick Center serves a variety of purposes and audiences, including:

• Indoor children’s play space
• Community meeting space
• Community event space (children’s parties, baby showers, etc.)
• Youth sports and athletics clubs, classes, and open play
• Home of the Ferndale Seniors Group
• Home of the local Boys and Girls Club
• Office headquarters for Ferndale Parks & Recreation administration and programming staff

The building is 90 years old and hasn’t undergone a serious renovation or upgrade since 2001, when it was converted from an elementary school to the current recreation center. With the Kulick Center in need of large-scale renovations and upgrades to meet building standards and programming needs, the City seeks a recommendation about the future home for Ferndale’s recreation programming, the "envelope" that will support the programming that our community wants and needs.

Task Force

In fall of 2018, Mayor Dave Coulter and Ferndale's City Council established a Kulick Center Task Force to assess the community’s recreation needs and recommend a plan for moving forward. They selected 10 residents to sit on this committee, representing diverse recreation users throughout the Ferndale community.

The main task force objectives include:

• Review and discuss the needs assessment of the current building and future needs that have been identified by the City’s Park and Recreation Master Plan and the Master Land Use Plan.
• Gain understanding of the challenges of the financial impacts on the City’s current and future budgets and financial implication on the potential committee recommendations.
• Make a formal recommendation as it relates to the outcome and funding mechanisms for the Community Center.

Survey

As part of the process the City will distribute a community-wide digital survey, which will be promoted through the City's website, social media accounts, and via mail to a random selection of 1,000 residences. Everyone is encouraged to take and share the survey: your feedback will help the Kulick Community Center Task Force to make informed recommendations, and will assist City Council in its assessment and path forward.

Next Steps

The task force is scheduled to meet 4-6 times over the course of 4-5 months--roughly November 2018 through March 2019. At the committee's conclusion, they will be asked to make a recommendation or set of recommendations (which may or may not be unanimous) to Ferndale City Council. Council will then encourage community engagement as they consider recommendations and options.

Contact

Kulick Community Center Task Force staff liaisons:

• Chair, April Lynch, City Manager: alynch@ferndalemi.gov 248-546-2399
• LaReina Wheeler, Director of Parks and Recreation: lwheeler@ferndalemi.gov 248-582-3365
• Sheryl Stubblefield, Director of Finance: sstubblefield@ferndalemi.gov 248-546-2377
• Dan Mooney, Fusco, Schafer and Pappas, Architect: dmooney@fsparch.com 248-543-4100

If you have questions or concerns regarding the Kulick Center facility or task force process, please reach out to one of the staff liaisons listed above. We will arrange a meeting for you with the appropriate person(s).