MARCH 16, 2009

COUNTY PARKS VALUABLE ASSET TO ALL WHO VISIT

Spring time is one in which we turn our attention to the state of our local parks and their maintenance.

The county budget for 2009 provides an allocation of $360,000 for the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy. The budgeted item requires the Conservancy to provide matching funds.

The Conservancy has secured a dollar for dollar match by accessing philanthropic funds and $60,000 in donations. It is obvious how strongly Erie County residents and taxpayers enjoy and support the Olmsted Parks and the support they receive, which the County Legislature fought for and included in the 2009 budget. I am proud that the 11th District is home to Delaware Park, one of the jewels of the Olmsted Park system.

The funds will be used to carry out the Conservancy's strategic maintenance program for the Olmsted's parks system which includes Delaware, Martin Luther King, Jr., Front, South, Cazenovia, Riverside and their connecting parkways. The Olmsted system makes up 75 percent of Buffalo's parkland.

The $8.6 million 2009 county Parks, Recreation and Forestry budget also provides funding for maintenance of county parklands; this funding will go toward labor, equipment repair and truck repair, and will include cutting grass, picking up garbage and trash, cleaning shelters and comfort stations. The 2009 allocation will allow for major 2009 park initiatives, which will be focused on safety issues in the county parks division.

I am pleased that the county's beaches will be open to the public again this summer, with the Department of Parks and Recreation informing us that the beaches will be open no later than July 1, with the possibility of them opening a week earlier if the weather and conditions allow it. Due to the funding the County Legislature approved in the 2009 County budget, there will be 12 lifeguards, four captains and one beach supervisor.

The County Legislature is concerned about the process as well as progress on negotiations under way concerning an Intermunicipal Parks agreement between Erie County and the City of Buffalo. Because little substantive information was made available to the County Legislature's Energy and Environment meeting when requested at its February 25, 2009, meeting, County Legislature Majority Leader Maria R. Whyte, County Legislator Daniel M. Kozub, Chair of the Energy and Environment Committee, and I drafted a letter to the Buffalo mayor and the county executive.

We expressed our hopes for a timely resolution of the negotiation process. We remain concerned that negotiation delays will adversely affect seasonable park functions, the Olmsted Parks development efforts and annual scheduled events. We are told by the county attorney that there is good dialogue between the city and county. We also urge the county executive and mayor to report on the negotiation conclusions to the County Legislature.

Erie County's parks are staffed by talented, hard working staff, and they are a wonderful asset to all who visit them. The County Legislature will continue to support our parks on behalf of our community.

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