 I'm here with Rick Toll, director of Parks and Recreation for South Portland. Thanks for joining us, Rick. Well, good to see you again. Thank you for having me. It's a good time to be on the show and talk about Parks and Recreation because it's one of those times a year where people sometimes are wondering what to do if they're not out in the snow. So, snow in Maine? Yeah, really. So what do you have planned for this season? Well, actually, because we finally do have some snow this year, unlike last year, which was rather mild, unusually mild. We have opportunities for people to use the green belt and go out and walk it still. But also, when the snow is there, they could actually either snowshoe or cross-country ski on it. Or at Wainwright Farms, where we have our recreation complex out on Highland Avenue in South Portland. A lot of folks go there or tour our golf course and then cross-country ski or snowshoe and go outside. Well, go sliding. It's amazing to see the family sliding at the golf course and other places. Oh, yeah, the golf course. I never think of that as a plan. Yeah, well, it's pretty hard to tee off right now. But you can definitely get down the hills and slide. You mentioned the green belt. What is that? Well, it's a trail that goes from Wainwright Community Recreation Complex off from Highland Avenue, I just mentioned, all the way for seven miles through the city out to Buglight Park. So, it is a wonderful trail system that is there and it's continuous. You do have a few crossovers at certain points. The most difficult probably is at Broadway and also at Evans Street. But those are a couple of things you have to be careful of. They're safe, but you have to be mindful of other people in cars. Other than that, it's really neat in the middle of the city to go out in an area where you're kind of now in a wooded area riding a bicycle or walking. Yeah, it sounds like a... And now you get the cross-country ski or snowshoe, this time of the year, several sections of it. Yeah, and it initiates right at the Recreation Complex. Yeah, you go to the Wainwright Recreation Complex and you can go there and go and do that. Or you can walk on the paved part. It's all paved, but we leave the pavement bare and plow on the other section of it from Buglight all the way down to Mill Creek. So that way people could walk or other people can cross-country or snowshoe. And what kind of programs do you have at the Rec Center? Oh, that's the thing everybody forgets about, and they really need to take advantage of. Some of them are open gyms for families just to come and participate and play indoors at different times. And then there's also the swimming pool, which you can do either take a lesson, your kids can take lessons, you can take them together, you can do water aerobics, you can swim laps. It's all those wonderful things. You can walk on the walking track, it's a 12th mile track on the inside. So you can walk around, do 12 laps, and you've walked your mile. Then maybe swim a couple laps, take a shower and go home. So there's lots of options that you have. It's just getting there and coming and checking out our website and checking out and calling and saying, hey, is there something I missed? No, I'm just finding out you have a hot tub there, but it's been not functional for a while. Yeah, it's been about 10 years, almost 11 years since it was functional. And Mayor Blake, Thomas Blake, asked to set up a committee along with some citizens. It's really a citizen initiative. The folks there are saying, hey, we used to have this wonderful amenity. We really need it. We'd like it back. Rick, could you help us figure out how to do that? So myself and the mayor and the city manager, Mr. Galey, have put together a citizen group. We're looking for volunteers to join it and business leaders to join it as well. We're open to public-private partnerships to put it back. We don't know exactly how much it'll cost yet, but we're exploring that. But we definitely, within the next year to 18 months, would like to see if we could restore that and put it back in our aquatic center. That'd be an excellent thing. Oh, yeah. I mean, you and I would be able to sit back and enjoy that after a nice, you know, long, cold jog or something in the green brook. Yeah, especially, you know, outside and doing stuff in the winter. Yeah. So what are some of the other things that you have going on there besides the rec center? Well, I think one of the things we had a year ago that we were going to miss is the Rotarians helped us with a winter fest. We've suspended that for one year, but we're looking for folks that might be interested as well. And we're doing research now, and we're going to open up one again next year, but we're going to hold it at Wainwright at the recreation complex. So, you know, we're really excited about that. We want a variety of events, family-oriented, so everybody can come. So we're kind of exploring that, and we're doing some things as a staff and as a community. But in general, I would say if there's a lot of different interests from basketball to volleyball to pickleball to, there's a lot of different programs. If you go on our website and you look at our brochure, it's a virtual one, you can actually click on certain things that will take you right to the registration format, so you can then register. You don't have to go from site to site to do this or that. It's pretty convenient. So some things are a dollar, some things are more, some things are free. It just depends on what interests you have and what time you have available. Yeah. A lot of people talk about not being so active in the winter because in the summer there's so much to do and get out, but it sounds like there's no excuse really. Yeah. No, there isn't. So we service just folks from South Portland. We regionally invite people to the facilities that we have and the programs we offer. So absolutely. That's very generous. Now, you mentioned the website. What is the website and is that the place where they can get more information is also fine. Absolutely. You go to southportland.org, click on Parks and Recreation and in there you can then click on our brochure. So three clicks away, you're right into it and it shows every program and our facilities. There's directions to our facilities on that website and it's the city's website, but it helps you get around and it's pretty good. And then from there you can also even just register, like I said. And so we also can call us if you don't have access to a computer at our offices on Nelson Road, South Portland. The number is 767-765-0. You can call there and talk to our staff and they'd be glad to help you. Great. Great. Well, thanks a lot for joining us and I hope people take advantage of what you have. Well, I look forward to seeing you over there and thanks for having me. Thanks. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.