Omaha World Herald article:
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10584575
LINCOLN – If you’re headed to a Nebraska state recreation area this year, you might want to pack a weed whacker.
And if history is your thing, call ahead to make sure a guide will be available for a tour of a state historical park.
Because of lagging state funding, the Game and Parks Commission is proposing to reduce services at 28 state recreation areas.
For almost all those areas, that means no trash pickup and no flush toilets. Mowing will be done only twice a year – once in the spring, once in the fall.
At six state historical parks, including Fort Atkinson near Fort Calhoun and Buffalo Bill’s Ranch near North Platte, services will be limited. Visitor hours will be cut and tour groups will have to call ahead to arrange visits.
Nebraska has a total of 86 state parks and recreation areas.
Game and Parks also plans to lay off two sign shop workers and eliminate 21 other jobs that had been left unfilled because of a lack of money. The agency estimates that it faces $20 million in deferred maintenance costs on park facilities.
The cutbacks, discussed Wednesday during a legislative hearing, prompted several lawmakers to voice concern about the prospect of unkempt state parks at a time when the economy might prompt more Nebraskans to vacation in the state.
“We’d almost rather see some of (the parks) shut down,” said State Sen. Lavon Heidemann of Elk Creek, chairman of the Legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee. “I’d think there would be some bad publicity for the state to have parks like that.”
Parks officials responded that they’re doing the best they can in tough economic times. Earlier this session, the Legislature dumped a proposal that would have raised the state park entry permit fee from $20 to $25 a year.
Roger Kuhn, assistant director of the Game and Parks Commission, said the state park system is nearing the point where it must seek other funding sources, such as lottery or sales tax dollars, or look at more drastic cutbacks, such as abandoning or selling parkland.
Several budget trends have not been good for the state parks system in recent years.
Taxpayer funding was cut 17 percent in the 2002-03 budget crisis, Kuhn said. Despite leaving 30 job vacancies unfilled, utilizing more volunteers and cutting back on equipment purchases and maintenance, the commission has never caught up, he said.
“We’re limping along, hoping for better times,” Kuhn said.
Sales of park stickers, camping fees and cabin rentals generate 71 percent of the parks budget, but revenue from those three items declined between 8 percent and 10 percent last year.
Earlier this year, the Legislature gutted a bill that would have raised a variety of fees charged by game and parks, including the park entry permit.
Because of that, Heidemann said, the Appropriations Committee tried to help the state parks by recommending spending increases of 3.5 percent in the next fiscal year and 3.2 percent in 2010-11.
Those increases would be higher than the average 2.4 percent hikes proposed elsewhere in the preliminary state budget. But game and parks officials said Wednesday that negotiated salary hikes and inflationary costs eat up any funding increases.
Kuhn said maintenance cuts at state recreation areas will focus on sites that see fewer visitors, generate less revenue and are farther from more densely populated areas. He said planners broke the state into eight districts and kept at least three fully maintained parks in each district.
At Fort Atkinson, for instance, reroofing the log barracks of the reconstructed frontier fort has been deferred for several years. Some wood shingles are 31 years old. Mowing has been curtailed to only when necessary and only in areas that absolutely need it.
Two jobs at Fort Atkinson will be eliminated through attrition, and an assistant superintendent will be reassigned to Fremont. Visitor center hours at Fort Atkinson will be cut back and the summer season shortened, perhaps to mid-August instead of Labor Day.
Overall, Kuhn said, the idea is to provide “four-star” services at about 40 state parks and recreation areas, rather than “one- or two-star” services at all state parks.
The Game and Parks Commission is seeking partnerships with communities, natural resources districts and other entities to take over maintenance and operations at some parks, including Summit Lake near Tekamah, Brownville Recreation Area and Buffalo Bill’s Ranch. But Brownville and North Platte have already indicated that they have fiscal problems of their own and are unable to help, Kuhn said.
The commission also will again seek an increase in the state’s park permit – the lowest in the nation among the 37 states that have them – but probably not until 2011.
