PORT TOWNSEND — Volunteers are already coming forward to help keep aging Jefferson County Memorial Field in shape enough to reopen for spring sports after its annual winter closure.
Rich Stapf Jr., owner of Stapf Construction and an East Jefferson Fire-Rescue board member, offered one of his employees part time to help the revenue-deficient county Parks and Recreation Department maintain the field that dates back to the post-World War II period.
After Parks and Recreation Department Manager Matt Tyler updated the county commissioners on Memorial Field, another volunteer, Jefferson County developer and real estate agent Joe Daubenberger, also came forward to help.
“Now is the time to join,” Tyler said of volunteers needed for Memorial Field. He can be contacted at 360-385-9129.
“Everyone’s welcome to join.”
Twelve of the county’s 19 parks have been adopted, and the county’s Adopt-A-Park program has included Memorial Field since September, Tyler said.
Volunteers adopting parks agree to work for two years.
While the county did not close the Chimacum and Hicks Shine day parks, it did close the Quilcene, Chimacum and Leland campgrounds, which will not reopen in spring.
Tyler also proposed a cooperative of users be formed that would include the county, school districts, city of Port Townsend, Little League baseball and football, and business owners to deal with the longer-term issues facing Memorial Field.
Besides seeking donations of time and money to upgrade Memorial Field, Tyler said his department must begin long-range planning for what people want Memorial Field to be in the future.
Tyler told the commissioners that the school districts pay $650 per football game to use the field, raising an average of $2,500 per game on tickets and concessions.
Lodging tax use?
County Commissioner John Austin, D-Port Ludlow, asked about using county lodging tax for the field, figuring that some events draw people from outside the area who spend money on accommodations and food.
“The parks are for more than just the immediate use of our local people,” Austin said. “They bring in tourists.”
He said parks also add to the quality of life that attracts people here to work.
County Administrator Philip Morley said the county could look at using Lodging Tax Advisory Committee dollars, adding that the county would have to show how such events draw visitors.
Morley said city of Port Townsend has shown interest in helping to find state grant dollars for Memorial Field.
During a Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce luncheon Monday, both Mayor Michelle Sandoval and City Manager David Timmons said the city would be willing to work with the county on the Memorial Field issue.
“It is about partnerships,” Sandoval said. “It is about a long-term strategy.”
Sandoval also brought up the long-debated issue of forming a metropolitan parks district, a subject last discussed five years ago.
Such a proposal would be intended to generate tax revenues for city and county parks maintenance and operations.
“In my estimation, we ought to talk about it,” Sandoval said.
“I just think when you vote you need to think about the kids who you are voting for.”
Community partnership
Morley said a community partnership is in the works to keep Memorial Field — which needs more than $1 million in improvements — in operation.
Officials with Port Townsend and Chimacum school districts, which heavily use the facility for high school sports, voiced support for that effort.
Memorial Field athletics facility is used for football, baseball, soccer and other large-scale community events.
The field is just one of several county parks threatened by budget cuts last September when Parks and Tyler cited a $100,000 budget shortfall and announced the closures of four parks facilities, outlined a proposal to close four parks facilities, cut almost three part-time staff positions and become heavily dependent on volunteers.
The move left just one paid staffer for parks maintenance countywide.
Since September, several volunteers have stepped up to prevent the park closures and county officials now hope the same can be done for Memorial Field, which cost the county $91,319 in 2009 to operate and maintain.
The county parks system that serves about 2,200 families with 700 children budgeted $539,546 in 2009 expenditures but has only slightly more than $438,000 for 2010. That’s a 19 percent reduction.
Following the discussion, county Commissioner David Sullivan, D-Cape George said, “I’m optimistic about it.”
________
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
