Budget cutbacks pinch rec programs

Parents of 4- and 5-year-old children looking for Cookie Monster Wigglers this summer are going to have to settle for an alternative day camp.

Nothing personal, just belt-tightening.

When the city of Kalispell sharpened its budget ax over recent months it fell first and hardest on the Parks and Recreation Department.

Mike Baker, director of parks and recreation, in turn directed his recreation staff to begin trimming programs. City parks programs for adults were hardest hit, but programs for kids are feeling the pinch as well.

So are downtown flower beds, upkeep in the city's neighborhood parks and green belts, and maintenance on anything that isn't absolutely essential on the parks side of his department.

"We are in real severe times," Baker said.

With the decision to cut $346,300 from the Parks and Rec budget - a 21 percent reduction - the city put up a barrier of sorts around the department's proposed $1.316 million budget. It's still in the general fund, but will now be managed as an obligated budget that is expected to produce revenue from its allocation.

The good news is that it gets to keep that revenue and use it to grow more.

Baker's department will need it.

Parks and Recreation lost 2.5 full-time-equivalent jobs, 26 seasonal workers with recreation programs, 13 seasonal maintenance workers in the parks, and 27 summer recreation programs.

"A viable parks and rec department in any city [takes' a higher percentage of cuts because they're general-fund supported," he said.

Voters turned down a November 2008 ballot issue to form a parks maintenance district that would have taxed Kalispell residents at a minimal level to help with parks upkeep.

As a result, Kalispell's only source of parks and rec funding, other than general-fund tax money, is the fees charged for the summer camps, lessons, classes, park pavilion rental and the like. Only 30 percent of the department's overall budget comes through these channels. In recreation programs alone, fees for service make up 70 percent on average.

After this year's budget cuts, that leaves pretty thin margins.

Last year the popular summer Kids Camp programs could accommodate 120 children a day. This year's staffing cuts means the capacity is only 70 children a day.

All parks and recreation programs combined last year served about 10,000 participants throughout the summer, during Christmas and other school breaks, and in the after-school programs.

Woodland Water Park took its share of budget trimming that showed up as minor cuts in personal services and operations. On chilly days and other low-swimmer days, managers will keep an eye on the census and close the pool when it drops below a viable number.

Baker's staff also cut back a bit on open-swim hours. Now they are 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. daily and 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, eliminating the Friday night session. No evening swim was offered the first week of the season.

Swim lessons, which served more than 1,000 people last summer, started June 22 - later than last year. With the late start, Baker said, participation started off stronger this summer. Four two-week sessions, plus a one-week half session, will keep neophytes paddling until Aug. 21.

Recreation program fees were raised a bit to help cover some - but not all - expenses on the programs that do remain, "but we've got to be careful not to price ourselves out of a program," Baker said. "Affordability is huge."

National trends show that families, hard hit by a tough economy, are sending their children to fewer paid programs down at the city park. Yet they are forsaking long vacation trips in favor of local recreation - often in the parks, and usually for free.

"Kalispell Parks and Rec has tried to keep the affordability clause in everything we do. We believe in that and the council supports it," Baker said, making the case for continued free use of city parks but wondering where the money for maintenance will surface.

Visitation to Kalispell's parks is up this year, Baker said. He knows because there's more garbage, more park reservations and bigger crowds. But car counts that will help put a number to that won't be out until July.

He calls it a double-edged sword.

Parks should be opened and well-maintained so families can enjoy a wonderful day there rather than breaking the bank on a trip to Yosemite, he argued. But with staffing taking up 85 percent of the department's budget, that means cutting people to run the programs and cut the grass.

"It's hard to provide a good quality level of service for your users, and still stay within budget," he said.

With 430 acres of park land and open space in the city's 28 sites - 357 acres in parks and 73 acres in natural and open space - he has to prioritize.

So his staff is focused on the 20-acre-plus regional parks this summer - Kidsports Athletic Complex, Woodland and Lawrence parks. Those parks draw the biggest use so they are getting mowed and string-trimmed, the restrooms are being cleaned and maintained, buildings and fixtures are being repaired.

Second-tier parks, the neighborhood parks such as Meridian Park near Peterson School, and third-tier parks (the small-space green belts on city land salted across the city) are being passed over for now.

Community groups are helping take up some of the slack. Youth Court offenders who have been assigned to community service, churches who banded together for a work day this spring, and an east-side Adopt-a-Park group all are helping with deferred maintenance.

He's balancing that with a lot of common sense.

"We don't put anything in the ground that we can't take care of," Baker said.

Flowers are not growing in as many public places this year because of that decision. But in heavily used settings such as Woodland Park, which is the backdrop for weddings throughout the season, flowers still are being planted and tended.

If Baker's proposed 2009-10 Parks and Recreation budget is adopted, Kalispell's 21,000 residents would be assessed $3.42 per person a month - $1.38 per person a month would go for recreation programming alone.

Until then, the belt remains tightened.

"There will be a visible change to our parks and recreation system," he said.

"That visible change within the parks is the ability to maintain what we have, and in the parks and recreation programs a scaling back in capacity. We eliminated all adult programs' and some youth programs for a total cut of 27, he said, "and we're focusing on kids and youth at risk."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com