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After the last pizza box was discarded and the last painting was carried home, members of the Maplewood Citizens Association closed the doors on their neighborhood activity building for the last time.

Since he locked the doors after the spring social in April, citizens association president Allen Myers, 66, has watched the Maplewood-Alta Vista Local Park activity building in Bethesda sit unused.

"This in the middle of the residential neighborhood," he said.  "Nobody wants to look out a vacant and damaged building."

Maplewood-Alta Vista Local Park was one of 11 park activity buildings closed by the Montgomery County Parks Department in February 2010. With many of the remaining 18 buildings still with low usage rates, the future of those buildings is uncertain as Montgomery County continues to tighten its belt.

Of the 31 park activity buildings maintained by the parks department in 2009, the 11 that closed cost more to maintain than they were bringing in rentals, said John Nissel, a division chief in the facilities management division.

In 2009, the Maplewood-Alta Vista building brought in $18,900 in revenue but cost $23,000 for maintenance and utilities, Nissel said.

The other 10 closed centers — Lynnbrook Local Park in Bethesda, Stoneybrook Local Park in Wheaton, Colesville Local Park, Owens Local Park in Beallsville, Ken-Gar Palisades Local Park in Kensington, Nolte Local Park in Silver Spring, Camp Seneca Special Park in Boyds, Clarksburg Neighborhood Park, North Chevy Chase Local Parks and North Four Corners Local Park in Silver Spring — were rented for 20 percent or less of their available hours, according to a 2009 report.

The 11 buildings' closure saved the parks department $181,000 from the fiscal 2010 budget, spokeswomen Kelli Holsendolph said.

Two of the closed park activity centers – Ken-Gar Palisades Local Park and Nolte Local Park — have since been leased to child care companies, Nissel said. The parks department also is discussing leasing Camp Seneca Special Park to the Recreation Department.

The parks department also sold the Garrett Park Estates Local Park building to the Town of Garrett Park on Jan. 7, more than three years after the department decided to close the building in 2007.

Also Included in the 2009 list of park activity buildings was the Wheaton Community Center, which is currently being operated by the Recreation Department, Holsendolph said.

The 11 closed centers create a challenge as the parks department searches for tenants to lease the buildings.

Decline of the

activity building

Myers remembers when neighborhood groups frequently used the buildings for meetings or parties and the county used the buildings for recreation classes.

"The whole nature of these changed," said Myers, who grew up in Chevy Chase and has lived in Bethesda since 1978.

The recreation department is still one of the biggest renters of the park activity buildings. According to a 2009 report, 20 percent — or 5,880 hours — of the hours rented in all 31 buildings were rented by the recreation department.

Many of the park activity buildings were World War II surplus buildings that consist of one multi-purpose room and a bathroom, Nissel said. Some have a kitchen.

When Myers heard the neighborhood center would be closing, he tried to convince the parks department to allow the citizen's association to use building for meeting space in exchange for maintaining the facility, but quickly learned that the group couldn't pay the $20,000 a year needed for the project. 

The parks department recognizes that residents don't want their neighborhood facilities to sit empty, but the cost of maintenance and utilities may be out of the grasp of some groups, said Kate Stookey, chief of public affairs and community partnerships.

"The problem is a lot of people have a lot of really great ideas but don't have any money, and we don't either," she said.

The buildings left empty are monitored by Park Police while their future is determined, Nissel said.

ccalamaio@gazette.net