PORT TOWNSEND – Jefferson County Memorial Athletic Field in Port Townsend and a $620,000 construction project at H.J. Carroll Park in Chimacum hang in limbo because funding sources are drying up, Jefferson County Parks and Recreation Manager Matt Tyler said.
“Barring improvements in funding and governance for 2009, the [Jefferson] County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will recommend that available resources be expended to keep limited number of high quality facilities open and begin [to] surplus the remainder,” Tyler said in a written statement.
“Memorial Field will be first to close because it is a low quality facility that is expensive to operate.”
In addition, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board has recommended cost-saving measures such as having public school districts paint the lines on Memorial Field and ceasing mowing the grass at some parks.
The parks department requested $466,100 from the general fund for the 2008 budget, said Jefferson County Administrator John Fischbach.
Because parks and recreation represent the only “unmandated service” paid for by the county’s general fund, it is the likely choice for cuts, Fischbach said.
“It’s a discretionary service,” he said.
The requested amount is expected to be cut by about $58,000, with $39,000 of that meant to go toward matching a state grant to fund the construction project at H.J. Carroll Park, which would include a skateboard park and BMX track.
The grant was in the amount of $216,000, and without adequate matching funds, the grant will have to be given back.
“I believe it will,” be given back, Fischbach said.
“That’s my recommendation.”
However, Fischbach noted that the county commissioners have not made a final decision on the parks budget.
The remaining $19,600 expected to be cut from the requested parks budget is from wages and benefits for staff, and will result in a reduction of services in 2008, Tyler said.
“Current trends indicate that county Parks and Rec funding will be further reduced each year for the foreseeable future,” he said.
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board met for a retreat in October to discuss some of the funding issues and came up with the following strategies:
Using the above guidelines, the advisory board recommended that the H.J. Carroll Park grant be returned and that the project be abandoned, that the county stop mowing the grass at the Jefferson County Courthouse park and the Indian Island park, and that Chimacum and Port Townsend school districts, which use Memorial Field for football and soccer games, be asked to paint the field lines and clean up trash for their own games.
The advisory board plans to conduct a series of public forums in 2009 to hear what the community wants to do about the funding issues and the tough decisions that must be made if the situation does not improve, Tyler said.
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