By Clyde Noel

Several residents and parents of Los Altos Hills want to establish summer recreation programs for children and families of Los Altos Hills. They have willing participants, instructors and venues. What they don’t have is liability insurance and money for program mailings.

That’s where the Los Altos Hills City Council comes in. And that’s why council members heard from town rec supporters at last Thursday’s meeting.

Rebecca Hickman, co-chair for Parents for Recreation Programs in Los Altos Hills, said: “We feel we have developed a workable plan for implementing recreation programs that will not significantly impact town resources.”

Hickman told the council that all planning, administrative and marketing functions would be handled by volunteers. The program, which she hopes to start this summer, would use existing town-owned venues such as the Westwind Barn.

To make the program work, Hickman asked that the city council include liability insurance for the programs and an initial start-up fund of $1,500 to cover supplies such as children’s T-shirts and instructor fees.

Council members unanimously approved the program in concept and asked City Attorney Sandy Sloan to check how much more it would cost to add on the town’s insurance coverage by ABAG (Associated Bay Area Governments).

Approval also was given to the Los Altos Hills Horsemen’s Association for a one-week horsemanship camp for children who do not own horses.

Jane Kawasaki, summer camp volunteer, said the program has everything but insurance. She requested the city council provide insurance for the summer camp, or include “Friends of Westwind” as an additional insurance rider on the town policy.

Sloan said the town’s ABAG coverage includes a $25,000 minimum, and since the city owns the property, it is already liable.

Cheng said during her election campaigning, residents with young children requested more recreation.

“This is a good idea for recreation. We should have a parks and recreation committee for the town,” Cheng said.

Mayor Elayne Dauber reminded Cheng that parks and recreation were included in the Paths and Recreation Committee responsibilities. After some discussion, the council decided, in concept, to expand the pathways committee and then split it into a new parks and recreation committee. It was similar to last month’s action that saw the creation of an investment committee that broke from the town’s finance committee.

For more information, about the proposed recreation programs, call Hickman at 949-1846.