The Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) put forward a recommended list of closures and service reductions in order to achieve its 2010-11 agency savings target and help address the State's historic fiscal difficulties. Among them are two Erie County Parks, among five in the Niagara Region.
Governor David A. Paterson's statement is as follows:
"New York faces an historic fiscal crisis of unprecedented magnitude. It has demanded many difficult but necessary decisions to help ensure the fiscal integrity of our State. The unfortunate reality of closing an $8.2 billion deficit is that there is less money available for many worthy services and programs.
"In an environment when we have to cut funding to schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and social services, no area of State spending, including parks and historic sites, could be exempt from reductions. We cannot mortgage our State's financial future through further gimmicks or avoidance behavior. Spending cuts, however difficult, are needed in order to put New York on the road to fiscal recovery. Going forward through the budget process, I look forward to a productive dialogue with the Legislature on parks and historic sites, as well as other issues."
OPRHP Commissioner Carol Ash issued the following statement:
"The 2010-11 Executive Budget included reductions to every area of State spending. As such, the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation has today put forward proposed closures and service reductions to meet its agency savings target. These actions were not recommended lightly, but they are necessary to address our State's extraordinary fiscal difficulties."
let's face it - our state government is a disaster and with a deficit like this, cuts have to come from somewhere - do state parks and monuments deserve to be closed or have budget cuts? definitely not - especially niagara falls state park - which is the single most internationally known destination in our region - but should we try to fight and lobby our ineffective legislators to get funding back for the parks so they will just cut the budgets of other programs and departments (such as education, environmental protection, etc)? maybe the state is not the best steward for the parks anymore?
i'm not saying privatize the parks and hand them over to wealthy individuals that can fence the people out and turn it into a country club, but what about some kind of community-ownership or co-operative ownership type set up?- sell member-ownerships of the park to community residents to raise funds, cover costs, etc and keep the park open to the public without the dependence on state funding - the revenue of park entrance fees, rentals, concessions, camping, etc go directly back to that specific park (as opposed to a general state fund) - as it is, don't many parks depend on the dedication of volunteers already? and perhaps there would be an increase in volunteer activity if it was a park 'owned' by their own community as opposed to 'owned' by a faceless bureaucracy in Albany
now i doubt the state would be willing to give up some of the larger parks or if it is even possible to 'buy' a former state park from NYS or if there would even be support for this kind of project but I know I would love to be part of a co-operatively owned Woodlawn Beach - while it might have to start small and then eventually become a 501c (3) but than it might qualify for environmental conservation and environmental education grants and who knows what else
from what i've read, community members and officials in wilson, ny are looking for possibilities for wilson-tuscarora state park - even a 99 year lease from the state - these are the ideas that we need to think about for our parks - and how great would it be for the country to see Western New York residents, instead of complaining and begging for state handouts, we take issues into our own hands and take pride in our beautiful surrounding environments –
i'm not sure if this is insane, or even possible, or what - and i don't know what the annual operating budget for a park like Woodlawn or Knox Farm is but it was an idea so I thought I'd throw it out there