Unlike the seemingly endless production in October 2008 that marked the opening of the North Beach Boys and Girls Club building on Dayton Avenue, the rededication of the structure Tuesday, July 24 went quickly. The building has been renamed the North Beach Recreation Center and will be home to a collaborative effort by the local Boys and Girls Club and the Calvert County Division of Parks and Recreation.

“Today is a different occasion,” said North Beach Mayor Mark Frazer, who was determined to get the small turnout of elected officials, government employees and citizens out of the oppressive heat and into the building.

It was the convergence of two situations—a struggling nonprofit and a need for a newer, bigger location for county-run recreational activities—that prompted county and town governments, and the Boys and Girls Club to form the alliance.  The Parks and Recreation programs are being transferred from the North Beach Community Center across the street to the Boys and Girls Club’s $2 million building. The community center will soon become the new home of the Bayside History Museum.

“We are always trying to get the best return for our buck,” said Frazier, who noted various levels of government, businesses and citizens have invested money in the Boys and Girls Club facility. “It’s the elected officials’ responsibility to get the best return.”

Late last year, word spread in North Beach that the Boys and Girls Club was in financial trouble. During the November meeting of the North Beach Town Council and club official reported that was not the case. However, earlier this year the building was in fact closed for several weeks.

At the town council’s February meeting, Reginald Broddie, the chief professional officer of the Boys and Girls club of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County announced the club would reopen in early March and a plan to make the North Beach club solvent would be implemented.

The situation represented quite a change from the optimism Calvert County officials had about the fledgling Boys and Girls Clubs in North Beach and Lusby. The latter club met its demise when its funding dried up.

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. [D-District 27] recalled the Boys Club he was active in as a young man during the 1950s. Miller, who sponsored the state bond bill that gave the North Beach project its momentum, recalled the Boys Clubs of the 1950s were supported by local businesses. He said businesses, government and other entit