Month: August 2009

Arizona state parks at risk for closure

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[Source: KVOA.com] — On Monday the state parks board meets.  The chairman says it’s the most important meeting in its 50 year history.  The board will determine the operating budget, strategic plan for the next 3 years, and most importantly whether the parks can remain open.  Arizona has 30 state parks.  The state’s parks board oversees the state historic preservation office.  And gives out grants to communities for all types of outdoor recreation.

So they need $27 million to operate the agency and it looks like the budget will be cut in half.  If parks are forced to close some say the impact will be felt throughout the community.  [Note: To read the full story, click here]

Arizona lawmakers consider selling Capitol buildings, Kartchner Caverns State Park

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[Source: Examiner.com] — Desperate for cash, Arizona state lawmakers are considering selling the House and Senate buildings, then leasing them back over several years before assuming ownership again.  Dozens of other state buildings may also be sold off and leased back as the state grapples with a huge budget deficit.  Other “candidate properties” range from state prisons and the mental hospital to run-of-the-mill state office buildings and Kartchner Caverns State Park, the crown jewel of the system.

Under the complex financial arrangement, state government services would continue without interruption while the state picks up a cash infusion estimated by Capitol number-crunchers at $735 million.  [Note: To read the full story, click here]

Viewpoint: Arizona legislature on verge of shutting park system

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[Source: Bill Meek, President, Arizona State Parks Foundation, Camp Verde Bugle] — Without the Legislature’s help in securing immediate additional revenues for Arizona State Parks, the current FY10 budget will force closure of virtually all state parks, shutting a system that serves more than two million visitors annually, while depriving local communities of some $266 million a year in parks-related income.  During a public workshop last week, State Parks Director Renee Bahl explained that legislative sweeps of parks funds, including $3 million in entry fee income, have left State Parks with only $8.4 million in operating revenues for the fiscal year.  This compares to $30 million needed for bare bones operations, excluding any capital funds for repair of badly deteriorating historic buildings, unsafe sewer park systems and eroding lakefront facilities.  Such scant operational money is not enough to even close, fence and guard Arizona’s treasured array of 30 parks, recreation areas and historic sites, Bahl noted.

To avoid this disaster, somewhere between $18 million and $22 million must be restored to State Parks — an amount accounting for about 1/10th percent of the state’s overall budget and less than a half percent of its current $4 billion deficit.  Not to provide such modest funding will effectively wipe out more than 50 years of taxpayer investment in buying, building and opening such heavily-visited places as Kartchner Caverns; Havasu and Alamo lakes and on the state’s west side; Slide Rock, Red Rock and Dead Horse Ranch state parks in Northern Arizona; and Catalina, Oracle and Patagonia Lake state parks in southeast Arizona to name a few. [Note: To read the full story, click here]

Officials: Vandalism in Yuma parks cost taxpayers $200,000

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[Source: Associated Press] — Officials say Yuma’s parks and recreation areas have seen a spike of vandalism in the past month.  Toilets are getting smashed, trees have been cut down, playground equipment is being taken apart, and even drinking fountains are being destroyed.  City spokesman Greg Hyland says there are about 80 drinking fountains throughout all the parks in Yuma and each one gets fixed about once a week — sometimes even daily.  Hyland says it cost city taxpayers more than $200,000 last year to repair property damage and clean up graffiti left behind by vandals.

Now with budget cuts, he says the city might not be able to fix everything at the parks, which are usually open daily from dawn to 11 p.m.  Since the parks belong to the community, city officials are asking for the public’s help in watching the parks more closely and reporting any acts of vandalism or graffiti they see.