Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Parks & Recreation Department

 

TO:

David Corliss, City Manager

CC:

Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager

Casey Toomay, Assistant City Manager

FROM:

Ernie Shaw, Interim Director, Parks & Recreation

Mark Hecker, Assistant Director, Parks and Recreation

DATE:

April 24, 2015

RE:

Parks & Recreation Department 2016 Budget

 

Over the past 20 years, the City of Lawrence citizens have invested a great deal to provide exceptional parks and recreation facilities in the community. This investment has truly made Lawrence one of the leaders in the region, and the envy of communities across the state and nation. Recently, staff applied for the Gold Medal Award from the National Recreation and Park Association. We have twice been a finalist of this prestigious award, and it is because of the commitment to excellence within our parks and recreation services that we continue to be considered as one of the best in the state and country. This innovation has been a product of not only committed leadership of our city leaders but also the county-wide sales tax passed by the citizens in 1994, assisting with the development of community facilities. This tax has funded most of the major parks and recreation facilities citizens enjoy today and provides a dedicated funding source to help maintain and operate these facilities.

 

With the opening of the community’s new 181,000 sq. ft. Sport Pavilion Lawrence facility, the City has realized a long-standing need, providing more indoor gym space for the citizens while impacting the local economy through hosted tournaments. As we look to the future, we do not anticipate the need of a major parks and recreation facility the magnitude of Sports Pavilion Lawrence over the next 7 to 10 years. However, we still have a very high need for funding current parks & recreation infrastructure improvements and future parkland acquisitions as the city grows.

 

It is very important to note that all parks and recreation facilities have a very high degree of public contact and interaction on a daily basis, as the public are invited to come out and play in our facilities (pools, playgrounds, gyms, recreation centers, trails, parks, etc.), relieving everyday stress and live a healthy, active lifestyle. Parks & Recreation Department staff maintain a never-ending projects list that is reprioritized weekly to address concerns within the parks and recreation department.  These projects currently rely on annual sales tax funding and/or state alcohol tax funding. If either of these funding sources are eliminated, reduced or frozen, an alternate source of funding would need to be established to meet these needs in the future. 

 

We feel Parks and Recreation is a “core” and essential service that directly impacts the quality of life of the citizens of Lawrence. This service is one of the key considerations when families and business consider relocating to our City. Lawrence has a long standing tradition of providing exceptional recreational opportunities for it citizens to live healthy, active lifestyles. The demand for future growth of these services will continue to expand over the next 15 to 20 years. A dedicated funding source is required to maintain and provide future growth to Park and Recreation needs. The 1994 county-wide sales tax, which didn’t have a sunset, was voted on to be that funding source, helping manage these resources the community has come to expect and appreciate. Following are the primary budgetary challenges in maintaining this high level of service in 2016.

 

Top 5 Budget Challenges for 2016:

 

1.  Infrastructure Project Funding

Current funding is approximately $720,000

$500,000 from sales tax reserves

$220,000 from special recreation fund

Future funding is need at a level of $1.2- $1.5 million per year to keep up with aging infrastructure and facilities.

 

Recommended annual funding allocation:

$1,000,000 from sales tax reserves

$300,000 from special recreation fund

 

2.  Equipment & Vehicle Replacement

Current Funding is approximately $128,000

This funding level is creating a backlog of equipment that needs replaced. The department currently operates over 40 pieces of equipment that are over 15 years old

 

Recommended funding

$350,000, for the next 5 years, to catch up on back log of replacement.

 

3.  Increase contractual service lines for mowing and tree removals 

Mowing of right-of way and City owned property – With the added mowing responsibilities at Lawrence VenturePark, the new 31st street, the new  23rd and Iowa, and the Library Plaza, there is a need to increase the contractual mowing line to maintain these areas.

 

Recommended funding

Increase contractual mowing line by $25,000 in the general fund 

 

Tree Removals - with drought conditions in the past 3 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of dead trees on city right-of-way.  The number of tree removals has increased to nearly 20 % over previous years. 

 

Recommended funding

Increase contract tree removal line by $10,000 in the general fund

 

4.  Full-time and Part-time staff

Part-time staff hourly rates. The Parks & Recreation Department employees nearly 700 part-time employees, at an hourly rate of $8.25-$9.00 per hour.

 

At the current rate of pay of $9 per hour for our maintenance positions we are unable to recruit enough people interested in filling these positions. We feel we need to be paying at least $11 per hour to compete with other businesses that employee these seasonal laborers.

 

Recommended funding

20% increase to all general fund part-time lines or approximately $50,000 total.

 

In 2014 we were forced to increase hourly wages for life guards and building operations staff due to our inability to fill these key positions. The $1 per hour increase from $7.25 to $8.25 helped in recruitment, but was not funded in the 2014 or 2015 recreation budget.

 

Recommended funding

Increase in the recreation fund part time lines of $80,000 to get us back to the staffing levels that we have had in the past.  

 

Forestry position (1) – this crew needs to grow from 3 to 4 people to allow us to put two crews on the street to remove trees and prune trees. In 2016 it is anticipated that we will begin to see the effects of the Emerald Ash Borer. This insect will kill approximately 2500 ash trees in Lawrence over the next 3-4 years

 

Budget impact $45,000 for new staff

 

Park Maintenance Staff (2) – We need to add two new positions to keep up with growth of maintenance responsibilities.  We continue to add new round-a-bouts, parkways, parks trails, and landscaped medians all over the City plus the Lawrence VenturePark. These areas all require a great deal of maintenance during the growing season. Current staff cannot keep up with growth. Our only solution is to allow staff to accumulate a great deal of comp-time to maintain these new additions. This accelerated comp-time accumulation is counterproductive to getting our work done because staff is always taking time off to burn accumulated time (1 hour worked equals 1.5 hours off)        

 

Budget impact $90,000 for new staff

 

5.  Fees for Services

It has been a long standing tradition in Lawrence to keep recreational opportunities inexpensive or free to the citizens of Lawrence. This is a sound policy as long as it is backed with tax support. However in recent years the recreation fund and golf course enterprise fund are constantly being challenged to produce more revenue to support operations; this cannot be accomplished if we continue to provide services below the market value for that service.  Examples:

1.    The golf course needs to raise fees approximately 10-12 percent to be comparatively priced with other area courses

2.    Swimming fees need to be raised $1 per entry at all facilities to help pay for increases in wages for seasonal staff

3.    The wading pool in South Parks should have a minimal entry fee to cover operational costs  - propose $2 per child  / adults free

4.    The weight and cardio rooms in all facilities should have minimal fee for use. This will help with maintenance, repair and purchase of cardio & weight equipment in these facilities – propose $2 per visit or $100 for an annual pass to residents.

 

Other Fees

5.    The cemeteries need to continue to increase fees by 3-5 percentage each year to help cover operational expenses. Plus, outdated policies that have allowed free and reduced burials need to be eliminated.

6.    We need to increase the per tree charge to developers for the Master Street Tree Program from $245 per tree to $350. This increase is needed to offset higher bid prices for trees and installation in recent years.