All too often, taxpayer-funded parks departments are treated like seesaws by their governing bodies.
One year, parks equipment and landscaping are at the top of a city’s must-do list. The next, they’re at the bottom, trying to hold their own.
In Anderson, the city parks department saw its budget slashed 62.5 percent, the most of any city sector, from $2 million in 2009 to $750,000 in 2010.
The department is looking at a decrease in the 51 properties for which it’s responsible or a loss of services.
Certainly, the sale of properties with little use or that are inaccessible needs to be pursued by the city, such as Stanton Park near 21st Street and Columbus Avenue.
But foremost, this is not the time to establish more user fees in the parks or increase taxes. Already residents can purchase a “pooch pass” to walk in the Canine Companion Corral at the animal shelter or to rent various shelters.
But no one, of course, would be willing to pay for a walk along the White River Trail.
Instead, this is the time for aggressive city officials to seek partnerships with other struggling agencies and organizations as well as with county government.
The idea must be stressed that the amenities offered by parks provide a quality of life for residents. That quality translates into a city’s reputation outside its borders.
However, the city’s chief concern should be a quality of life as it relates to finding new businesses and expand current ones for jobs.
Already, there exists a promising partnership between the Historic West Eighth Street Neighborhood Association and nearby Funk Park ensuring that residents help keep the site clean. Anderson Road Runners also stay involved with Shadyside Park’s amenities.
Maybe some other groups could conduct regular cleanups or adopt a park as a neighborhood activity.
Parks and Recreation Department jobs are critical, too. However, it seems that the city parks might have had too many last year. Budget cuts reduced the rolls by three employees this year. The argument is easy; parks will fall into disrepair without employees.
That is the chief reason that city leaders must rise and find partnerships, connecting the quality-of-life issue to jobs.
This budget crunch might be a good crisis, forcing the department to take an even more thorough look at unused properties and critical services.
The Parks and Recreation Department has to ride out the economic crisis until the seesaw rises again.
