All of the reasons why The Y Swim Center has been a success in Randallstown

On the eve of a huge Juneteenth celebration at The Y Swim Center in Randallstown, we bring the Maryland Crab Cake Tour inside with 4th District Councilman Julian Jones and John Hoey of The Y in Central Maryland to discuss how Baltimore County and the local community came together to make life better for residents and families near Liberty Road.

Councilman Julian Jones and John Hoey from the Y discussed the importance of community resources in Randallstown, District Four. They highlighted the Y’s role in providing essential services like the swim center and educational programs, including Head Start and after-school enrichment. Jones emphasized the need for affordable housing, employment opportunities, and recreational facilities to help residents thrive. Hoey detailed the Y’s offerings, such as childcare, health services, and youth sports, which support families. They also mentioned the Y’s membership deals and the community’s vibrant atmosphere, including events like the Juneteenth celebration.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Randallstown, District Four, Councilman Julian Jones, Y swim center, community center, STEM center, Head Start, early childhood education, Baltimore County, youth programs, enrichment programs, community support, housing challenges, recreational opportunities, family services.

SPEAKERS

8

John Hoey, Julian Jones, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Weather home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 task, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively in a positive place. We are in Randallstown, District Four for the councilman, Julian Jones, who’s here. John Hoey is here from the Y. We were at the Y swim center. I had to check twice make sure that my clean cuisine crew is getting over, because this is the Maryland crab cake tour. It’s all brought to you by the mayor. Brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I have the Back to the Future scratch offs our friends at curio wellness putting us out on the road with their new location in Pikesville, as well as liberty, pure solutions. I dreamed up this idea to do three hours of pool work here and do the show. And I did not wear proper attire, I dress like I’m sitting at a sports bar, and I’ll be at readers in two weeks. I’ll be up at the crab house. There. Pools are humid. John hoe they are, yeah, this is a lovely pool here. And Julian, your district, we’ve done about an hour on 20 years ago. This getting built. But you’re a resident. You’re a lifer here. You remember when this, what was here before? Was this like grass? What was this? It wasn’t, I

Julian Jones  01:08

think it was just a field, just a field. We had the funeral home up the street, and most of this was woods, and here we

Nestor Aparicio  01:16

are, yeah, well, we went through the genesis of how good things happen in community. And I know you wake up every day trying to fight for things like this, trying to fight for the access to do this. We talked about the why not getting PPP money. We went through you came in a little late to all this and how important government is. As you’re running for county executive and sitting here in this district, government’s important.

8

Julian Jones  01:38

Absolutely right. Yes, speaking of government, the property right behind the y and the community center, most of the building here is the community center, and right behind here is another piece of property that the county purchased with the intention of building a steam center, science, technology, engineering, arts and math sometime in the distant future,

Nestor Aparicio  02:03

all right? Well, I mean things, they have to begin with a seed, and then they begin with, right? We talk to the community, and then something like this happens. We talked about the we got doors shutting in the pool. This is like a real atrium. It’s loud in here. It’s a

John Hoey  02:17

filter room. You know, that’s kind of an important part of the pool here.

Nestor Aparicio  02:20

8

Well, keeping the pool clean

Julian Jones  02:22

is really, really it’s a wonderful addition to

Nestor Aparicio  02:25

talk about your community over here and things like this that serve people, that the people in the community see it, feel it, walking here every day, people like John, people like Towanda and Elijah here running the pool. And we’ve talked so much about this is a community thing, the people that are voting for you and against you, in certain cases,

Speaker 1  02:45

vote against me, but you

8

Nestor Aparicio  02:47

walk the streets here, I’m sure. But absolutely, coming in here, even seeing your own constituents in here, this is a centerpiece of what community is all about, right?

Julian Jones  02:56

Absolutely, this is a wonderful addition to the community. It’s a great partnership between the county and the Y and it provides a a pool. And so many people in our community come here. What time you open? Five, six o’clock in the morning. 530 in the morning. People come here from 530 in the morning to get their swim on and exercise. And it gets runs all day long, seven days a week. Needs

Nestor Aparicio  03:24

in the community, as you see it when you’re out of in your own district. We talked about the whole county a little later on while John’s here, John’s in all these places too, right? He saved Catonsville for the last I would have appreciated that he saved Dundalk, because I’m a Dundalk guy, as you know, but all these, these, these situations, are unique, and they’re different for you. And what’s important in the fourth for you? Well,

Julian Jones  03:48

8

listen, what’s important for me is clearly every resident here making sure they’re fulfilling their best potential in terms of living their best life. And it is my job as a councilman to make sure I’m doing everything in my power to make that happen. We have people who are challenged in terms of housing. We have people sort of like the Maslow’s hierarchy of need at the bottom level. We have people that need housing, people that need employment, they need opportunities. And then we get to a place like this, where people have opportunities for recreation. So the job of Baltimore County Government, and my job, is to make sure that we are meeting people where they are and providing the resources and support to help them grow and live their best life right here in Randallstown, Owings Mills, Reisterstown, Windsor mill, Baltimore County, John,

Nestor Aparicio  04:41

I wanted to ask you about wise in general, not just this, why, but you talk so much about educational programs head start for young people, aside from, because people do think physical. I’m going to get in the pool. I’m going to run around. There’s a whole educational component here of how to write that probably supports and abuts Community College. And services and other different kinds of civic and I’m a CCBC grad, I’ll tell Dr Curt night, is that every time I see her, Dundalk and I went to Dundalk community college for two years, but there’s so much of that sort of, especially adult education, right, that you provide here that supports his constituency here. Oh,

John Hoey  05:18

yeah. I mean, you know, when we think about our work with young people as we think about it from, you know, cradle to career or cradle to college. In fact, you know, we you mentioned Head Start. It begins with Early Head Start, which is in cases before a child is born, when a woman is pregnant, who qualifies for the Head Start Program, which is people living at or below the federal poverty level.

Nestor Aparicio  05:43

So expectant moms,

8

John Hoey  05:44

yeah, so there’s a lot of help. So, you know, Early Head Start will serves them so that they have a healthy pregnancy and that they are prepared to become a parent, which, you know, I’m assuming, Are you a parent?

Julian Jones  05:59

Absolutely,

Nestor Aparicio  06:00

I was a parent of 15. I can promise

Julian Jones  06:02

8

you I’m ready. You are ready. Let me tell you. Let me tell you a story about able to take care of my cat at this point, let me tell you a story about being a parent. Okay, so I’m coming out 100% true story. I’m coming out of Cracker Barrel. Okay? And some young man is holding the door, and as we walk out my party and my wife and and he says, Hey, I know you. You look familiar. So I stick my chest out and says, I’m Councilman Julian Jones. I pull out my card, I hand it to him. I’ve been on the Baltimore County Council for 11 years. I’ve been chairman for four I’ve done police reform, I’ve done housing reform, I’ve done all these things done they said, and when I finished, the guy said, You’re Julie’s Dad, that’s it. That’s my daughter. Yeah, right. And it guess, reminds me that who you really are, that’s who I really am. Yeah, that’s the most important thing that I can be as a father and a husband and take care of my family.

John Hoey  07:03

Hits the road, right? We all had our day, you know, on Sunday, and now it’s over 65 days. It’s over. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  07:12

we’re all trying to get better at that. When you say how to be a better, run me through something that would happen right here in Baltimore

John Hoey  07:19

County, yeah, again, you know, stick with early head start for now. So helping prepare that, you know, do you have all the physical Are you getting your medical treatment? You know, and we’re not providing it, but we’re ensuring that there’s referrals. Do you are we going to get you registered into Head Start Once your child is is set up, are you? Is your home safe for an infant? So there’s all this stuff that you know. Again, look, we’re all parent. We’re all parents. It’s hard enough when you have resources to prepare yourself to be a parent. You still don’t have enough time. You don’t have resources. So you’re talking about people who are struggling financially. They may be working multiple jobs, or they may be looking for a job, or they may be, you know, they may have something that’s preventing them from being able to sort of operate above the federal poverty level. So there’s all those services. And in early head start. And then Head Start serves children basically two to 312, and three, because now we have pre K here in the state of Maryland, so we’re Head Start is really not serving four year olds anymore, so

8

Nestor Aparicio  08:39

Well, feeding children and providing care for them is just at the most important

John Hoey  08:46

child’s life. There’s no more important thing so and then they they move into head start. We’re providing a real, high quality early childhood experience for them, both developmentally and educationally, socially. We’re we’re also de facto providing childcare so their parents can work. I was going to, you know, it’s not simply, we’re not simply doing childcare in Head Start. We’re really doing incredible early childhood development work, but by us, you know, taking responsibility for the for these kids. It allows parents to work. And we are helping kids. We’re also helping the family. We have all these family support services. We’re helping children with dental care, with, you know, eye care, with all these other services that, again, if you’re living at a certain level, income level, you you can handle yourself. But these families are, they need this. So we’re really providing all this wraparound support for these families and these young people. Because, you know, we all know, you know, if it’s. Child is not ready for kindergarten. You know, they’re not going to show up if a child shows up in kindergarten, two, three years behind. Yep, you don’t make that up. I mean, you’re not, unless you’re Superman.

Nestor Aparicio  10:13

Well, you throw COVID. We work hard

Julian Jones  10:15

8

to do it, but it’s very difficult on the channel. Yeah.

John Hoey  10:17

So Head Start is essential to ensuring the County’s most vulnerable families and young kids have what they deserve and that they are ready to enter the public school system, and the data will tell you, children that come out of the wise Head Start program in Baltimore County are more ready for kindergarten than the average kid entering a Baltimore County kindergarten.

Nestor Aparicio  10:47

Well, it makes schools better, right? I mean, that makes everything better, makes communities better, makes lives better for parents. Working

John Hoey  10:54

jobs, allows teachers to teach and not, you know, have to deal with the ramifications of kids, not, you know, at grade level and all that sort of thing. So it’s an incredibly important service. And then, you know, if you pick up from there, we have a range of programs, before and after school, enrichment programs in public schools in Baltimore County. Well, this is look

8

Nestor Aparicio  11:16

like. What would an enrichment program? Give me some examples. So

John Hoey  11:19

what that looks like is, again, recognize that some parents got to go to work really early, you know. So my school may start at eight, but I got to drop my kid off at 630 in the morning, because I got to head to wherever

Nestor Aparicio  11:32

and my kids

John Hoey  11:33

8

eight, right? So, right. Yeah. So why? Why associate is there? Brings your kid, you know, you drop your kid off. They come in, we help. We make sure they get fed. We get before the before time is, is mostly make sure the child gets fed. Do some activities to make the kid, you know, occupy the kid in a productive manner. And then, you know, the child goes, school starts, school takes over professional supervision. Yeah, we’re talking about and then at the end of the day is when the enrichment starts. So school, the school day ends, they go, generally, it’s like a big activity room in a public school. They go to the Y after school enrichment. So there’s where we get to do stuff with the kids that maybe they’re not the school doesn’t have time to do, right? So art, and a lot of times recreation and kind of you talked about STEM and STEAM, some of the stuff that is, truthfully, a lot of data will tell you that a lot of kids, they love their after school program, that’s the reason they go to school, right? So it’s the it, just it. It supplements what happens during the school day, where every kid

Nestor Aparicio  12:53

that doesn’t play basketball or footballers into sports, they suffered school so they

John Hoey  12:57

can play ball. So, right? So whether it’s recreation or whether it’s a kid who loves certain kind of arts and crafts that, you know, so we’re, we’re kids continue to learn and develop all those sort of things, but it’s more fun, right? Then maybe they perceive the school day to be, which, you know, I was a nerd. I love school, but

Nestor Aparicio  13:18

school you have to be at the Y you choose to be right.

8

John Hoey  13:21

So, yeah, so before and after school enrichment programs like that. We also, you know, have all of our Whys across Baltimore County, where we provide a range of opportunities for kids at all ages, whether that is recreational opportunities, whether those are we have for older kids. We have something called leaders Club, which is a opportunity for them to do civic activities. We have Youth and Government programs where we do a mock, basically a mock legislative session in Annapolis, in the chamber the week after session closes, wow. So they run, they pass bills

Nestor Aparicio  14:01

civic score. So,

John Hoey  14:04

I mean, we need more than the list goes on and on and on, opportunities. We have swim teams, we have all kinds of things. Again, the whole idea is to provide opportunities for young people’s to help both young people’s and their families. Because, I mean, I know it’s an old phrase, but it does take a village. So, you know, parents do the best they can, but the parents need great schools. They need other great outlets for their children that they know. Their children are safe, they’re engaged, they’re happy, they’re learning, they’re growing, they’re meeting other kids, other people, like that’s the fundamentals of a civil society. I always say that’s what the y really does. We help the Create and we help nurture the fabrics of a civil active society.

Nestor Aparicio  14:54

8

Speaking of a civil active society, we’re in the District Four. Councilman Julian Jones is here. John Hoey is here. Why we’re at the Y swim center in Randallstown. I’m threatening Dundalk next time up, even though we’re going to be doing the crab cake tour in Reisterstown, getting around the beltway for the fourth and for community. And you talk about, he talks about all of this glue holding things together. How is your district doing? Give me, give everyone on my side of town or where I live now, halfway out here in the Towson area, a little view of what Northwest Baltimore County looks like right now.

Julian Jones  15:29

First of all, let me guess weigh in on what John was saying. Sure, all of these services that he mentioned are excellent services for the children, but let’s not forget, they provide a sense of freedom and opportunity for the parents to go out and work and feel good and know that that child is being taken care of, that that child is learning in a productive and a safe space. And that’s what enables many of them. Because if you don’t have some of these services, some of these daycares, you can, you can be working just to pay them, you

Nestor Aparicio  16:08

know how? I know, so expensive. Let it Snow one day. The day it snows, Mom and Dad can’t go to work, right? You know? So I mean that that’s when it really hits me, and how lucky, how blessed I was to have the mother I had because all of these thoughts about 630 in the morning to seven, my mom was with me. My mom was my mom was That was my childhood, when it was those 12 years when

John Hoey  16:29

it snows and the, you know, schools close. I’m the fanatic about we’re gonna get all our Whys open, because families really need us. That’s when they need you to know they’re stir crazy. Because I shouldn’t say this, but when it snows in the Maryland lightly, they close schools. This is an up here. People tell you, people can get out. And they’re like, like, I got to get my kids out of the house. My wife’s

8

Nestor Aparicio  16:52

from Manchester, New Hampshire. She laughs at Ron Matts in the snow out in front of the row fell. You know, when there’s an interesting here, you know, I mean, like, but that being said, that is the culture we’re in. Yeah, no, but my point is, except in a Hereford zone, they go through everything.

John Hoey  17:06

We try to keep up, we try to get our eyes open, because we know, you know, people want to get out. They want to get their kids active. They don’t want them sitting home all day. That’s like, you know, anyone who has young kids, I got twin, 15 year old girls, I don’t want them sitting home all day, you know? Like,

Nestor Aparicio  17:20

I ask you how life is in the fourth district part, it’s probably better when things like the wire operating the right way, right.

Julian Jones  17:26

8

Listen, things are absolutely wonderful in the fourth district. Okay? Fourth District is very vibrant community. My district runs from basically the beltway all the way up Liberty Road to Carroll County. You hang a right over there, Rice’s town, Glendon, all of that is my district, all the way out into those areas. So we have a very diverse community, where we start at very you got a rural heading up here to very rural. We have Woodstock, which is very rural as well. So we have a big diverse community. We have the ravens are located right here in the fourth district. They are we have Owings Mills, which is the Metro Center. I call it the triple Trent triple crown. We have foundry road, the Metro Center and mill station. Those are the three triple crowns of Owings Mills, what I call downtown Owings Mills. Fantastic location. And then all the other locations, you know, we got, like the main street field up in Reisterstown above,

Nestor Aparicio  18:32

oh, wait, I’m doing the show up there on the show in

Julian Jones  18:35

Reisterstown. And then we have, of course, the hub here, Randallstown, Liberty Road. And the road. Thank God to the government. Right had been paved couple of years ago, all new sidewalk, curbs and gutter, new light posts, ornamental lights all up and down Liberty Road. We have a new supermarket and rural farms coming in down the bottom. We have a lot of things going on right here.

Nestor Aparicio  18:58

In the 70s, my grandfather lived right on meadow heights road, right behind me, about a mile away from here. So every holiday we would traverse top side of the beltway took us an hour to get out here. And we take the top side of the beltway past McDonald road, and I get to look at McDonald’s like Pennsy prep for me, you know, like, you know, now I’m looking but I, you know, I spent a lot of time in Randallstown as a young man, because my grandparents lived out here, you know, I’ve always been Saturday night at my grandparents house and do something

8

Julian Jones  19:26

different. It’s very nice. We are very, very blessed, you know, a lot of hard working individuals that live here, very, very, you know, yes, a great location, great community. Well, I’m gonna get back

Nestor Aparicio  19:39

and talk some politics with you. I’m gonna let John go, because you’ve been because you’ve been here. You want to come back out. I know you’re a busy guy running things, right? What do people need to know about the why? Before we go about joining being I’m you said dumb dog Catonsville. True, holy. There’s a y right around the corner. My buddy Chris lives downtown. He goes to the Catonsville. Why? Why? The why? How about that? That’s. Pretty good. W, h, y, the

John Hoey  20:01

y. I mean, it’s easy. I could be flipping say, why not that? You know? I think if you want to go to a place where you can be active, where you can meet people in the community, you know, and you don’t know, where you can have something for your whole family to do if you want healthy, that’s healthy. If you want a better quality of life, we’re there for you. And just so happens, June is really one of our big sales month. We got no we waive all the joining fee. And so

Nestor Aparicio  20:29

8

what does it cost? Typically, you give a little, give a little spiel for that. I’m in Towson. I want to go to Towson. Why? What is it?

John Hoey  20:36

Well, we have different categories of membership based on, you know, single families, you know, families, we’re very open minded when it comes to families. So our family offering can have up to four adults. You know, as long as everyone’s living in the same household, because we recognize, you know, a lot of times grandparents are living with families. It is a household plan. It’s a household plan, sure. So, you know, it’s a boy, I’m gonna, I think it’s 113 bucks a month. Okay, really, good deal. There’s no contract, you know, we’re not running a private gym. We’re community service. So,

Nestor Aparicio  21:13

you know, and, and then the resources, so the minute they come in, right?

John Hoey  21:16

Yeah, and there’s very little extra that you pay for, unless there’s a few services you want. So, you know, there’s so much, there’s so much there that doesn’t cost a dime extra, whether that’s, you know, group exercise. You can join a book club. You can, you get access to the best equipment you’ll find anywhere. You get access to all kinds of programming. If you have a young child there, stay and play. We don’t charge extra for we’ll we’ll take care of your young child while you’re using the Y. There’s youth sports programs. There’s all kinds. I’ve mentioned Elijah Tawanda over here a little bit. Talk about all of that. And here in Randallstown, because this is a partnership with the county, we can’t offer all those things. But as I was saying earlier, here in Randallstown and in Dundalk, you can just join this swim center and pay less because, you know, you’re getting the pool and not some of those other things. Or you can join the full y access here and then go anywhere else you want to go. You don’t join, you know, go to any other y. We always say, you know, you just you join the whole y system when you join the Y so there’s a ton there. And, you know, it’s interesting, I grew up, I didn’t, I didn’t grow up going to a y, and I was in the private sector when I got hired to be the CEO, I didn’t, you know, they went

8

Nestor Aparicio  22:30

through your whole bank to be, to be a man, should be a good guy,

John Hoey  22:37

you know? But I’ve now discovered, like all these things I was missing as a kid and now as an adult. And I have children. One of my son is 29 but when he was younger, he availed himself of all this stuff. I have now twin daughters who are 15, and they’ve kind of grown up in the y. And I now see something I didn’t appreciate when I was younger, because we didn’t have a y in our community, sure. But I grew up in this big family, and we kind of, you know, you know, when we were young that we’d all run outside. My parents would lock the door and we wouldn’t come back till after dark. And, you know, as long as there was a mosquito bites and lightning time of year for that, you know, as long as there was enough of us in the house, they didn’t

Nestor Aparicio  23:17

really mall. I had all sorts of trouble I could get into

John Hoey  23:19

8

my parents look like there’s plenty of hungry mouths here. We lost a few along the way, before I bring

Nestor Aparicio  23:27

you on and we talk some serious politics and let John go, I’ll just say the reason I’m here right now is I look at the two of you, and the video camera has the beautiful high. What happened was John and I got together a couple months ago. We were talking about federal funding and Trump this and Taco that, and all like all that stuff talk about a little later on. But I had a meeting about doing some stuff for the Y and involving the radio station, involving Baltimore positive and John’s, for years, that you got to come in, you got to come in. We got to get you in. And I talked to a couple of gals in Marcus, and I want to do a crab cake tour. I’m gonna bring clean cuisine in from over in Owings Mills, or bring the crab cake. A little later on, and I went on the website, and I’m like, where should I do it? When should I do it? I hit, why central mariner. I saw the events calendar, and it said Juneteenth. It was June 7. It was earlier this month that we opened a pool over here and had a Juneteenth. But this is, like, that’s a community fence, a community celebration. But I saw the pool and I’m like, I’m like, this is where we need to do the show to really begin our y journey, to show where we are. But there’s all sorts of things that go on here that involve the community, including a Juneteenth Celebration,

Julian Jones  24:30

right? Absolutely, that’s a big one. It’s a big one. It’s a big one. I was streaming live when I came this year and they I’m here every year with them. It is a big one, and it’s just another function or another activity that the y provides to the community. So you come by here more

Nestor Aparicio  24:48

than just to do my race Councilman Julian Jones, we’re in the fourth we’re in Baltimore County. He’s running for Baltimore County Executive. We’re going to talk some politics. We’re going to talk about Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities for Baltimore County. He, John Hoey, has given us all the strengths, the opportunities. There are no weaknesses at the Y though, right?

8

John Hoey  25:04

Well, we work on our weaknesses every

Nestor Aparicio  25:09

you come join the why you make it stronger. All right, we’re gonna step back, take a break. We’re in Randall stands. All brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. Back to the Future scratch offs we have here at the pool. I am going to have to Wanda and Elijah, because we’re going to talk about some of the activities that they have here in Randallstown. But I want to keep the councilman time, and at some point, Jerry’s coming over. So let me tell my cherry clean cuisine, because I’m doing for the 27th anniversary of the radio station. I’m doing my 27 favorite things to eat around the beltway. And this is in August. It’s our 27th year, and I was at an event, this might be Izzy’s down in Pikesville, at Suburban club about seven, eight years ago. They they anoint me to be the food taster. I go to the there was a it was the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce. They had a tasting, and it was at all these places, and you have to eat all the food because I’m the voter. So you really have to eat everything if you’re gonna fairly vote on local businesses. So sometimes it could create a little digestion. And a guy came up to me, bald head, you’ll see him coming in here a couple minutes of crab cakes, and he called me nasty, blank investor, you know, and he filled in the Dundalk part of that. And I looked up at him. He said, You got to try this thing. And it’s this squash lasagna thing. I didn’t know what it was. I took one bite of it, and I sort of went in and lobbied the other judges. I said, did you have that guy, that guy over there thing? And they all ate it, and they came back and they’re eating they’re like, this is the best thing in the room. I’m like, Well, I’m glad all the judges actually tasted it. So now I go into his place, he’s right, literally, where Steve’s deli was in that Plaza right up above Stevenson on Owings Mills Boulevard, little plaza up there where they have a jujitsu mag crab thing going on up there. And it’s carry out. He caters. But, oh, I go in there now and it says, award winning. There you go. So anytime I see him, I’m like, award winning. You know who helped you get that award? So Jerry’s gonna come out, and he swears to me his crab cakes are better than the than the the delicious squash lasagna. So big shout out to Jerry. I appreciate him. He’ll be a part of the show a little later on. So brought to you by the Maryland lottery, in conjunction with our friends at Curia wellness and liberty, pure solutions. Back for more from the why? Why not? As John Hoey would say, back from Randallstown, stay with us. You.