|
 | | |
On borrowed time Milwaukee County trails not hurt by budget woes … yet by Stephen Paske In 1982, the budget for the Milwaukee County Park System was $41.6 million. Today it remains approximately the same, hovering right around $40 million. Naturally this failure to keep up just with the pace of inflation has taken its toll on the system. Grass gets mowed less, many swimming pools lay empty, and full-time jobs that once went to county residents have been replaced with the seasonal variety. Certainly this must have an impact on the silent sports. Cross-country skiing, biking, running – all dependent on well-maintained trail systems – can't possibly survive when the parks take such a financial shellacking, right? "Budget cuts have not been a factor with regard to the trails," Black insists. "Many other things have been hit, but the trails have remained one of my top priorities. They're what the public wants. They connect communities and keep people healthy; there are so many positive byproducts of a strong trail system." As a frequent Milwaukee trail user myself, I can affirm that what Black says is true. My frequent runs and bike rides in many of the parks in and around the city have changed little from a decade ago. So the question becomes how has a system so strapped for cash been able to maintain adequate trails, and will it be able to if the cuts continue? After all, constructing and maintaining trails is expensive. According to the 2007 Milwaukee County Trails Network Plan, written for the likes of County Supervisor Scott Walker, base construction costs for a 10-foot-wide, granular-surfaced, nonmotorized multiuse trail run more than $62,000 per mile. If you upgrade to a 10-foot-wide, asphalt-surfaced, nonmotorized multiuse trail, the cost is a staggering $156,000 per mile. And for concrete, nearly $222,000 per mile. And these figures don't include the cost of trail amenities such as signage, bridges and drainage structures. Examples of actual trail costs that include these features are the Kinnickinnic River Bicycle Trail, a 10-foot-wide asphalt trail that cost $176,470 per mile. The Honey Creek Parkway construction of bike trail from Portland Avenue to 70th Street, also asphalt, came in at $149,206 per mile. Also there was the Root River construction from 60th Street to Rainbow Airport that ran $301,014 per mile. How does the county maintain these pricey paths? "We've been able to obtain a lot of grants and such to keep our trails intact," Black said. "We also put together a trails council with entities like the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Transportation. Together we want to have a comprehensive plan for what we're doing so that we're all on the same page for expanding the trails system. The more people buy in, the more people dolling out the money feel confident in maintaining the system." So far, the buy-in has been impressive. An Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act grant of $800,000, coupled with $100,000 each from the county and Join the Oak Leaf Trail, a concerned group of citizens and businesses, helped extend the Oak Leaf Trail from Drexel to Loomis. Wisconsin Coastal Management helped rebuild the East Bank Trail by the Milwaukee River. The Stewardship and Community Block Grant has also helped maintain trails, too. But the parks can't rely on grants such as these forever, can they? "We want to look for sources of long-term funding if the cuts continue," Black said. "Whether that's a tax or something else, we need to find more secure funding. Eventually every cut will have its repercussions." Such repercussions could be ugly. The draft 2007 Milwaukee County Trails Network Plan concludes that if fundraising and grants aren't enough to sustain the system, trail user fees may need to be imposed. One has to wonder what effect even a nominal user fee might have on how often the working poor would be able to take advantage of the trails – enjoyment of which shouldn't be limited to those with money. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student newspaper columnist Will Mueller quoted The Park People Executive Director Jim Goulee saying administrative costs for the parks have gone from 10 percent of the parks' budget in 1980 to nearly 50 percent today. A county pension scandal earlier this decade led to the shifting of a large portion of the county budget to retirement benefits and away from parks. Still much of the parks' financial troubles can be traced to the use of property taxes as the primary means of parks funding. In 1982, 22.6 percent of the total county levy went to the parks. This is in stark contrast to the less than 8 percent of the levy being spent on the parks today. The cost of increasingly state-mandated services such as the courts helps explain the shift in priority, according to Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial writer Jerry Resler. When Black talks about long-term funding, the two most often mentioned sources would be separate tax levy insulated from political pressure or a sales tax increase dedicated the county parks system. That second option has been hailed as a more sensible option, as it would greatly reduce the parks' reliance on the property tax and spread the cost of the parks over a broader tax base. Fortunately for silent sports fans in the Milwaukee area, budget cuts to the parks have had little impact on the trails so vital to our favorite forms of recreation. Private grants, innovative thinking and more efficient caretaking have kept the trails in good condition. But unless changes are made to the way the parks are funded, trail care could unravel in the near future. Resler may have summed up the situation best when he wrote in his editorial, "The sad fact is that there are not enough savings through efficiencies to dig the parks out of their current hole." The simple truth is that you get what you pay for. If the Milwaukee community wishes to maintain the quality of its parks, then people may have to accept higher taxes. Stephen Paske is the author of numerous articles related to running and the book Breaking Stride, published in 2006. More information can be found at www.stephenpaske.com.
| ||
Back to the top Waupaca Publishing: 717 Tenth Street * P.O. Box 152 * Waupaca, WI 54981 © 1999-2008 Site last updated 10/01/08 Designed by
PBW | ||
|
