The Wrangell Parks and Recreation Advisory Board met for their monthly meeting last Wednesday evening, April 3. Two of the main topics covered in this month's meeting were the upcoming "Helping Our Parks" project, as well as how the parks and recreation department can best prepare for potential budget cuts.
Kate Thomas, director of the parks and recreation department, said that the HOP Project has been one of her main priorities for the past few weeks. The project, which will be taking place on April 20 from 9:30 to 3:30 p.m., will have people from parks and rec and numerous community volunteers come out to Volunteer Park to work on several maintenance and beautification projects.
"We're kind of in between programming," Thomas said. "Closing up our winter programming, we have a lull in the spring before our summer programming. So our primary focus has been Helping Our Parks."
The main thing Thomas said she needed for the project is for board members to come out and help direct volunteers on where to go, for some to help take the lead on projects, and to also help prepare lunch for all the volunteers. Some of the planned projects include cutting down alders, removing rocks from the baseball fields, re-roofing the dugouts, and fixing up the score booth, among other things. Thomas described it as helping to "slinky" volunteers from the entrance to the park to the various projects that will be going on. They are expecting somewhere between 50 to 60 volunteers.
Budgeting has been a common topic of discussion for many organizations in town and across Southeast Alaska in recent months. The parks and recreation department, too, is discussing how best to handle potential budget cuts in the near future. Thomas asked what the department should do if it were asked to operate on a budget that was 20 percent smaller. She added that parks and rec had about $1.2 million in savings, but with operating costs that would only last for a year or two.
"That's the thing, there's this dark, ominous cloud," Thomas said. "We know it's coming, we can see it from miles and years away, but when is it actually going to rain?"
Board member Holly Owens said that the main priority for the board should be to focus on the longevity of the parks and recreation department. If cuts are necessary, they should be done to unnecessary stuff, like extra-curricular events of aesthetics. Things like infrastructure expenses and funding for the department's strongest programs should be protected as much as possible. Board Member Haig Demerjian also had questions about statistics regarding swimming pool and community center usage, saying that those statistics could be very helpful in defending the need for funding those facilities.
It was decided, after some discussion, to hold a public budgeting workshop on May 8. In the meantime, the board asked Thomas to put together a list of parks and recreation programs for them to review, along with a cost/benefit analysis.
Other items covered in the meeting include the purchase of new treadmills and a rowing machine, the installation of signage telling dog owners to pick up after their pets, and business sponsorships for the HOP project.
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