PORT TOWNSEND — Four community meetings in the last week have taught Jefferson County’s Parks and Recreation manager that people really care about the county’s parks.
“The biggest thing we’ve learned is that there’s support for the parks, for the recreation aspect and for the county’s trails,” Matt Tyler, parks manager, said.
“We got to see how badly people want this to remain as a service.”
Tyler organized the meetings in Quilcene, Chimacum, Port Ludlow and Port Townsend to gauge the community’s support and to gather feedback as to how the parks department should proceed in difficult economic times.
Tight budget
Adequate parks and recreation programs will cost $539,000 in 2009, Tyler projects. The Parks and Recreation Department has a 2008 budget of $326,176. That’s $59,500 less than in 2007.
“Tax money is going down, so we’d like to plan ahead for the future and find a way to serve people as best as we can,” Tyler said.
The county has 1,070 acres of park land, 9.4 miles of county shorelines and 8.2 miles of trails and facilities.
“It was interesting to know that people are interested in finding a dedicated source for parks and rec,” Tyler said.
“Everyone wanted to make sure there was a safe and secure way to bring money in for the parks.”
Several options for funding were culled from the meetings attended by about 100 people, Tyler said.
Tyler said another common theme at the meetings was volunteer work.
“We learned people want to increase volunteerism,” Tyler said.
“They want to see some adopt-a-park programs, partnerships with churches and more volunteerism in general.”
More meetings
Another round of meetings will be held in January. The county parks and recreation advisory committee will present action plans for the public to review.
“The committee is going to work on what we learned, and we will come back with another series of town meetings in January to continue the process,” Tyler said.
“This is a citizen-driven process,” Tyler said. “Were not providing top-down solutions. We’re trying to reach out to the public for assistance and support.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s really worth it to get the public involved.”
At the last of the four meetings — at Blue Heron Middle School in Port Townsend on Wednesday night — about 25 people tossed around ideas to increase funding.
Most of the ideas included creating new taxes or taking tax revenue from other sources.
One possibility is the formation of a metropolitan parks district, a taxing district to support parks and recreation programs, Tyler said.
Proposed ideas
Other options include:
• Consolidation of services and programs and more partnership with the city of Port Townsend, Jefferson County and public school districts.
• More public-private partnerships such as an “adopt-a-park program.”
• Keeping all parks and facilities open but reducing services, such as maintenance, in some places.
• Close or sell off park lands and end some recreational programs.
• Allowing the state parks system to absorb some of the county properties and parks.
More than 1,800 households are registered in parks and recreation programs, with one to three children per family, Tyler has said.
That translates to between 3,000 and 4,000 program users county-wide.
More than 80 partner organizations use the county parks and recreation facilities.
Tyler figures there are 175 volunteers, but he is always recruiting more. He figures their time is worth an average of $15 an hour.
Tyler is one of the county department’s eight employees.
Memorial Field
The county Parks and Recreation Department’s top priority is Memorial Field, a facility built in the 1940s.
Repairs would cost $1 million, the department’s staff estimates.
It has no automatic irrigation system, is in need of regrading, has dangerous grandstands with rusting ceiling beams, has tiny team rooms and showers and a fence in need of repair, Tyler said.
In uptown Port Townsend, the Recreation Center is the only public gym outside of the schools in the eastern part of the county.
Also built in the 1940s, Tyler said, “It has also gone beyond its useful life.”
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Jefferson County reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com
