PORT TOWNSEND — Unrelenting budget challenges could lead revenue-starved Jefferson County to close some parks.
County Administrator Philip Morley delivered the latest bad news to county commissioners on Monday.
Morley said it was too soon in the conversation to close any of the county’s 19 parks just yet, but it could be in a month.
“This may impact maintenance and operations of as many as half our facilities in 2009, including closing some parks, if necessary,” Morley said, presenting charts that showed significant reductions in sales and real estate excise tax revenues.
Morley said as valuable as parks are, they are not sustainable at this time.
Calling county parks “community living rooms” where memories are made, Morley said: “It is with great pain that I put myself in the position of recommending reducing the park budget by 17 percent.”
Morley said the county will need to make $550,000 of additional permanent program reductions during each of 2010, 2011 and 2012. Smaller cuts will be necessary during 2013 and 2014.
‘Squeeze play’
“That’s significantly more than we were looking at last December,” Morley said, adding that the county’s general fund was in a “squeeze play.”
The county will have to pursue grants more aggressively and examine non-mandated service cuts and where mandatory services can be reduced.
He said of additional concern is if voters approve anti-tax advocate Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033, which would index county revenues to 2009 levels “at a time when we have historic low revenues” since 2002.
The county commissioners will conduct a Dec. 7 public hearing on the budget.
With new construction at a critical low, the county Department of Community Development has laid off nine employees since December and reduced hours by 10 percent.
In April, the county reduced its general fund revenue projections for this year by $1 million.
Voter approved tax limit
Voter-approved Initiative 747 already limits Washington counties to 1 percent annual property tax increases, and Morley cited that as part of the problem.
County Auditor Donna Eldridge thanked Morley for giving the public a rundown “of what’s keeping us up at night.”
Eldridge has put out a call for county department heads to make their budget proposals.
County Treasurer Judi Morris, also at Monday’s commissioners’ meeting, said her department has adjudged expenditures to make them more in line with revenues, unlike other counties.
County Commissioner David Sullivan said the county has actually performed better than others — “and that’s actually a sobering thought.”
Morley said even in low inflation years, the cost of government to continue existing services increases 4 percent a year.
The county administrator has asked Pubic Works Director Frank Gifford and Parks Manager Matt Tyler to propose their budget-cut recommendations in a month.
Contacted Monday, Tyler said, “We definitely have structural issues at the funding level, but we don’t yet know how to resolve them.”
Tyler said the county Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee would be consulted.
County parks and recreation programs are supported by about 400 volunteers who work part-time as coaches and in other programs such as Adopt a Park.
“I think volunteers are always an option,” Tyler said, adding that a good example of volunteerism is improvements to the county’s East Beach Park on Marrowstone Island.
The parks department’s $550,000 budget supports four staffers, including Tyler, and five part-time workers who mow and landscape parks and instruct at summer camps.
Project backlog
Tyler’s department has been faced with a backlog of about $4 million in parks maintenance projects, including about $1 million for access, safety and irrigation improvements at Jefferson County Memorial Athletic Field in downtown Port Townsend, where high school sports are played, and Port Townsend Recreation Center uptown.
Issues that have been discussed include:
• Consolidation of services and programs and more partnership with the city, county and schools.
• More public-private partnerships such as the Adopt a Park program. Adopt a Trail already exists.
• Keeping all parks and facilities open but reducing services such as maintenance.
• Closing or selling off park lands and ending some recreational programs.
A metropolitan parks district — a proposal to form a taxing district to support parks and recreation — has come and gone in Jefferson County, but could be considered, Tyler said.
More than 80 partner organizations use county parks and recreation facilities.
Tyler said that in 2008, more than 1,800 households were registered in parks and recreation programs, with one to three children per family. This translates to between 3,000 and 4,000 users countywide, he said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com
