The long decline continues as Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker proposes more county park job cuts.
I've posted below some park pictures from Gretchen Schuldt's Milwaukee Rising blog (visit her blog to see more).
Color conservative Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Patrick McIlheran unconcerned:
Well, yeah. The place needs a coat of paint. The tennis courts need some Roundup. Which isn't particularly complex work.
Patrick needs to read that Roundup container's instruction panel a little closer - - I doubt that it's recommended for patching fractured blacktop surfaces, nor can it spray out a new regulation net.
Hmmmm - - part-time park workers armed with Roundup, and American soldiers forced to add scrap "improvised armor" to their Humvees in Iraq. Conservatives are consistent in their shortsightedness, at least.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Editorial: Cutting into bone
With parks already in decline, now's not the right time for the county executive to slash the full-time parks maintenance staff. Supervisors need to look at this carefully.
From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Sept. 20, 2007
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's proposed budget for next year would abolish 81 additional full-time county parks jobs. Walker says the parks won't suffer, because the job cuts are part of a broader plan to reorganize parks maintenance operations.
For the sake of our parks system, we hope he's right, but we're skeptical. Our parks are already paying the price for chronic cuts in staff and deferred maintenance.
That skepticism is shared by some members of the County Board, who have justifiably chided Walker for refusing to even consider an advisory referendum on raising the county sales tax to produce more revenue for parks.
Walker points out that of the 81 jobs he proposed to eliminate next year, 31 are vacant. He also noted that his budget calls for hiring 20 new forestry and maintenance workers who will have more supervisory duties, provides $600,000 to hire more seasonal workers because much of the work in parks is seasonal and includes $1.1 million to purchase new mowers and other maintenance equipment and gear.
The budget also calls for creating a park patrol of 12 half-time seasonal workers on bicycles with two-way radios.
The combination of the new positions, new equipment and more seasonal help will give parks administrators more managerial flexibility and resources, Walker said Thursday. In fact, he said, the Parks Department will have more hours of help available next year than it does now.
Walker is also proposing $14 million in new construction next year, including $2.5 million for the new Lincoln Park Family Aquatic Center and $1.5 million for three new splash pads to replace old wading pools in other parks. That makes sense, as does his decision to keep the Dr. Martin Luther King and Kosciusko community centers open. They earlier had been targeted for closure.
But we question the wisdom of slashing so many full-time parks maintenance workers in one fell swoop and relying so heavily on seasonal workers. That changing pool of workers will need to be trained and retrained, and valuable institutional memory will be lost.
With the parks already in trouble, now is not the best time for such drastic shifts in staffing.
Should Milwaukee County cut 81 parks positions? Why or why not? Send a letter to: Journal Sentinel editorial department
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