12/26/2008: "Loss Of Money To Impact Parks"

In order to balance the 2009 budget, the County Council made program cuts, and one of those was from the San Juan County Parks Department. The Council had been warned by County Park and Recreation Director Dona Wuthnow that the cut of over $108,000,00 could result in putting a chain across the driveways to county parks and the closing of public restrooms, if forced to operate on a new budget amount of $ $660,981.00

When the threat of closing the parks was made, there was confusion as to why this would have to happen, after all, the parks were there and open long before there was a department with a large budget. Why not use volunteers, it was asked. Wuthnow said for the same reason the parks would to be closed without staff : insurance liability issues.

But the solution was obvious to many, and over 100 local citizens quickly volunteer to help do what paid staff had been doing. Wuthnow said “Unfortunately we can’t have a volunteer coming in with a chainsaw to clear a trail,” but staff will now use some of their time to oversee the use of volunteers.. Volunteers will be asked to sign a contract, receive safety training and will be required to useappropriate equipment.

Volunteers have been the backbone and the main source of labor for many departments, from fire departments to libraries, and the Land Banks also uses them, as do the Beach Watchers, to name but a few.

As for the private events, these were never free in the first place, but what the impacts will be on normal day use was not made clear in the budget hearings.

In order to balance the budget; which is required by state law, the Council had no choice but to make a number of cuts in most of the departments, so Parks got hit with the 14% reduction.

Accordingly, 2009 service will be less personal and more operational emphasis will be placed on producing revenue than in past years. “We’ve got to focus on generating money to keep the remaining parks & programs going without the general fund support” Wuthnow is quoted as stating.

One change will be the loss of the annual January County-resident only reservation program that has allowed local residents to make advanced campsite reservations for anytime of the year.

San Juan Park campsite rental fees will increase about 7 percent next year, and the department will take reservations for individual campsites on-line only, rather than accepting them over the telephone, however group sites will still be booked by phone.

As for the restrooms, the funding may come from the Lodging Tax Facilities grant program that would be used to
help finance the maintenance of restrooms. Almost from the beginning there as been concern that Lodging Tax money is used to attract people to come to the islands, but is not spend on the impacts of having attracted them here.

And of course the normal island way of solving a problem will be to ask for donations to pay for such things as safety equipment and tools for the volunteer workers, and supplies such as dog waste bags and disposable cleaning supplies that were previously purchased with County funds.

“This is going to be a real challenge for our staff,” said Wuthnow. “Most of the time we will not be able to have people on-site to supervise the volunteers or enforce park rules. But we’re enthusiastic about finding a way to make this work. The alternative,” she said, “is closing some of the most essential facilities and beautiful areas on these wonderful islands.”