Augusta’s 60-plus parks and amenities are at a turning level. Services which have been in use for many years, in some instances as many as 150 years, are costly to keep up. Is it time to do away with some and focus restricted assets on those who stay?

That was the query posed by Augusta Parks and Recreation Director Maurice McDowell at a current Augusta Fee workshop.

“If the fee is taking a look at how to economize,” he mentioned, “I do not assume you may be making an attempt to do away with your personal property earlier than you check out a few of the issues that you’re being liable for, that you do not have possession of.”

The report really useful Pendleton King Park, which is owned by the Pendleton King Park Basis be “divested,” with metropolis tasks to stop, a transfer that will save Augusta $259,930, McDowell mentioned. Metropolis price range paperwork say the annual price range for Pendleton has been $100,000 much less than that every of the previous 4 years, however McDowell mentioned the determine contains some wanted capital spending.

Learn extra:Way forward for Pendleton King Park once more stirs concern as metropolis seems to be to divest

Rob Dennis, chairman of the muse, mentioned even when town ends its partnership with Pendleton, the park won’t ever be bought. “There could be a variety of penalties associated to not having a partnership with town, however promoting the asset wouldn’t be one,” he mentioned.

HOW many parks?

With a complete price range of $16.2 million, Augusta Parks and Recreation employs roughly 70 individuals to keep up 1,500 acres of park area, though the division’s tasks do not finish there. 

A 2016 grasp plan catalogued Augusta’s huge array of 60-plus parks and recreation amenities. The plan decided that right now Augusta has park area consisting of:

• 12 mini-parks of an acre or much less
• 18 neighborhood parks, which have a super dimension of 5 acres
• 9 group parks ranging round 15 acres serving a number of neighborhoods
• Three regional parks of fifty acres or extra: Diamond Lakes Regional Park, at 296 acres, Lake Olmstead Park and stadium, at 96 acres and Pendleton at 64. 

Why Augusta has so many is basically a thriller. Over generations, the federal government might have tended to be too keen to tackle the extra upkeep duties, McDowell mentioned.

“Manner again when, every time somebody had some greenspace and so they mentioned ‘hey, we would like a park right here,’ I believe town mentioned ‘sure’ to it,” he mentioned. “I do not assume anybody mentioned ‘no’ for a very long time.”

Do not shut, make investments

The Belief for Public Land believes each resident ought to be inside a 10-minute stroll of a park. Since Augusta is nowhere near that objective, it’s in all probability not the time to contemplate divesting or decommissioning parks, mentioned George Dusenbury, Georgia state director for the belief. He’s additionally the previous Atlanta parks commissioner and a Decatur metropolis commissioner.

“My core message is that cities and counties ought to be spending extra on their parks system, and also you get what you set into it,” Dusenbury mentioned.

And whereas some governments battle with parks, many are profitable, he mentioned.

“Cities throughout the nation which might be competing for residents, which might be competing for enterprise, which might be competing for funding, they’re investing of their parks,” he mentioned.

Options different Georgia governments have adopted embody making a parks authority, metropolis and college partnerships, or a enterprise or group enchancment district. In Atlanta, a public housing authority partnered with Atlanta parks to mix inexpensive housing into present park area, he mentioned.

“What we’re seeing is cities eager to combine housing and greenspace,” he mentioned. They may ask, “how can we use that park land then to make that group extra resilient?”

Creating an authority can assist allow the “nimbleness” wanted to run a neighborhood recreation and parks division, he mentioned.

Additionally:‘Love locks’ adorning Savannah Rapids Park bridge prone to keep

Partnerships have already got existed in Augusta. 163-year-old Hickman Park is privately owned however primarily maintained by town. Doughty Park, close to the Dogwood Terrace public housing group, previously benefited from a partnership with Augusta Housing Authority, in line with McDowell’s presentation.

Group buy-in very important

Altering metropolis parks ought to by no means be completely about {dollars} and cents, mentioned Cynthia Rhodes, a enterprise developer and Augusta parks fanatic. It is also about high quality of life and buy-in by Augusta residents, she mentioned.

Rhodes believes that Augusta typically fails to hunt public enter or safe group buy-in and as an alternative waits on public tax {dollars} to help the issues it cares about.

“Sustaining a park isn’t just the accountability of the federal government, however of the stakeholders throughout the group it serves,” she mentioned.

Rhodes mentioned amongst her favourite Augusta parks is Pendleton, the place she grew up visiting for its nature trails, pond, the tank parked on the park and its canine parks. She prefers the downtown Riverwalk for strolling and occasions and the Henry Brigham Middle for its playground for her grandchildren.

For the grasp plan, about 600 Augusta households who responded to a survey ranked the parks by use and significance. The highest three in each areas have been the Augusta Widespread and Riverwalk collectively, the Lake Olmstead Park-Julian Smith On line casino advanced and Diamond Lakes Regional Park. Pendleton wasn’t a survey choice, though the plan checked out its circumstances. 

How a lot does park administration price?

In comparison with its newer-development neighbors, Augusta spends greater than 3 times as a lot on recreation.

With a division of 54, Columbia County Recreation budgeted $3.4 million to function 17 parks and recreation amenities, which span 1,620 acres, in line with price range and different county paperwork. Including Savannah Rapids Park to the combo brings the price range to $3.8 million, or $24 per individual total. 

Cassidy Harris, public relations supervisor for Columbia County, mentioned all its departments function on “an environment friendly and lean price range” however a true reply for recreation lies with what a county provides. Over the past fiscal 12 months Columbia greater than 4 million go to its parks, with probably the most going to Savannah Rapids. 

North Augusta budgeted $2.9 million for its 19 parks and amenities, or $124 per individual counted within the 2020 census, however budgeted taking in $1.7 million from sports activities and rental charges and concessions, which might scale back per-person spending to $50.

Augusta’s $16.2 million recreation price range covers greater than parks and recreation, McDowell mentioned. A collection of presidency restructurings added funding to the recreation price range for libraries, museums, cemeteries, the humanities and landscaping the medians of streets comparable to Greene, Broad and Henry. Eradicating these drops the recreation price range to round $12.2 million, or round $60 per individual. 

Columbia County and North Augusta will not be an “apples to apples” comparability with Augusta, McDowell mentioned. What units Augusta aside is its complete variety of amenities, their age and the populations they serve, he mentioned.

Meals, scholarships and golf within the price range

On Augusta park area are situated some 18 group facilities, every assessed within the grasp plan, and roughly six senior vitamin packages carried out on the facilities.

The senior vitamin packages – an outgrowth of Meals on Wheels – have caps on their state and federal funding, whereas Augusta has no restrict on the variety of residents who can take part, McDowell mentioned. As well as, most Augusta youngsters are eligible for and obtain recreation “scholarships” that allow them to take part in sports activities and camps freed from cost, he mentioned. Greater than 42% of Augusta youngsters 11 or youthful dwell under the poverty line.

Augusta’s recreation belongings additionally generate some income, however not sufficient to maintain them.

The group middle amenities are vastly well-liked as rental venues and together with golf, tennis and swimming packages are the biggest revenue-generators within the recreation price range. The Diamond Lakes Regional Park campground alone generated $109,000 final 12 months, and Augusta Municipal Golf Course took in $351,000, in line with price range paperwork.

The most costly group middle to function is at Diamond Lakes, whose mixed price range for its park area, tennis advanced, campground and group middle is near $1 million. Price range allocations for bigger belongings embody:

Folks, CVBs love parks

When the internet marketing publication Cash.com known as Evans, Ga., the “finest place to dwell in America,” it cited the enchantment of sprawling Evans Towne Middle Park, the place households might experience bikes, use the splash pad, take their pets to run and attend performances at Woman A Pavilion. 

Augusta Conference and Guests Bureau promotes Augusta’s massive recreation belongings in its Vacation spot Blueprint, a grasp plan for rising town’s enchantment to guests.

“We actually promote our outdoor, our waterways, and strolling/biking trails,” mentioned Bennish Brown, CVB government director. “Inexperienced areas and public parks are valued as quality-of-life and quality-of-place belongings.”

Among the many belongings the CVB touts are a number of well-liked parks not operated by Augusta Parks and Recreation – the Augusta Canal Nationwide Heritage Space, Springfield Village Park, Aqueduct Park, Phinizy Swamp Nature Park – in addition to city-owned Diamond Lakes Regional Park.

Older parks want extra upkeep

One main distinction between Augusta’s parks and people of Columbia County and North Augusta is their age. Columbia’s Evans Towne Middle and Woman Antebellum Park have been accomplished in 2011 and Gateway Park opened in 2020. North Augusta’s Brick Pond Park opened in 2008. Its Riverview Park Actions Middle was inbuilt 1994, then renovated and expanded in 2018. Augusta’s latest park advanced, Diamond Lakes, opened in 1999..

“My largest difficulty is the age of our amenities and the quantity of upkeep it takes to keep up these amenities,” McDowell mentioned.

Constructed within the late Nineteen Sixties and early Seventies, heavily-used Bernie Ward Middle-Fleming sports activities advanced, the W.T. Johnson Middle, Doughty Park and Might Park are amongst amenities exhibiting their superior age, McDowell mentioned. Additionally visibly ageing is the Augusta Aquatic Middle, inbuilt 2000 for the Georgia Video games, he mentioned. 

Finally, a poorly-maintained park can develop into “a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Dusenbury mentioned, through which damaged infrastructure contributes to crime or different issues.

Different Augusta Recreation amenities are older, however preserved as historic belongings. The Julian Smith On line casino opened in 1936 and has made Historic Augusta’s endangered properties checklist, however is lined up for eventual sales-tax-funded work. The Previous Authorities Home, constructed c. 1801, can be a part of Recreation’s repertoire. Each are well-liked as rental venues.

Saying goodbye to Augusta parks?

The 2016 grasp plan recognized different parks Augusta might get rid of and listed methods to do it, comparable to giving them to Augusta Land Financial institution Authority for redevelopment, “mothballing” to vastly scale back upkeep, changing them to a different authorities goal, partnering with different teams on their maintenance or promoting them.

The plan really useful a number of that appeared on McDowell’s checklist, however not Pendleton or two others not owned by town, Hickman Park and Lock and Dam Park.

Giving up Hickman and its Nineteen Forties-era clubhouse leased to a youngsters’s museum, might save town the $15,560 it’s going to price this 12 months, in line with McDowell.

Lock and Dam Park, owned by the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers beside New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam, could possibly be repurposed as a rental space if its poorly-maintained amenities have been improved, he mentioned. The town plans to spend $31,100 on the park this 12 months.

Total, the Pendleton financial savings was greater than half the $459,591 McDowell mentioned Augusta might save by relinquishing upkeep of the checklist.

Different parks on the checklist have been small and little-used, or near different parks. They included Alexander Barrett Park, the grassy fenced wedge between Wheeler Street and Royal Road; Meadowbrook Park within the Meadowbrook group of south Augusta; Bedford Heights within the Nationwide Hills space; Vineland Park within the Vineland neighborhood and Heard Avenue Park, which is actually a big grassy median with picnic tables on Heard Avenue.

Regardless of the unease ensuing from his proposal, McDowell mentioned the dialog is price having. Augusta is much from promoting parks and hasn’t even had any of the properties appraised, which could be a subsequent step, he mentioned. The fee hasn’t taken any motion on the proposal however is anticipated to take it up later this month.

“I believe that’s a wholesome debate for town and for the residents of Augusta to have, to know it from that perspective,” he mentioned.