When the county is unable to accept additional park property to manage in a recreationally and environmentally-minded area where citizens cry out for more open land and trails, a glaring problem exists.

Island County employee Terri Arnold, whose three-fold job includes park superintendent duties, property management, and management of the Conservation Futures program, has literally had to recommend turning away parcels because the county lacks the resources to deal with additional land.

Arnold estimated that since 2004, the county has increased its managed property by 500 acres. Additional property in itself is good. Additional property with limited personnel makes it difficult to oversee the properties. The county employs three full-time park technicians, two on Whidbey Island and one Camano Island. Each island also has a seasonal tech to help pick up the considerable slack.

“They are spread really thin,” the parks superintendent said. Arnold has persevered, doing her job with limited resources in a department that is known for doing its best with what it has.

The General Services Administration is given what Arnold considers a generous amount of Real Estate Excise Tax 2 (REET 2) funds annually to carry out major upgrades and improvements at established parks and facilities. The funds, however, do not cover the management of large parcels or open spaces.

Elaine Marlow, Island County budget director, said the total REET 2 funds budgeted for 2007 was $335,000 for Whidbey and Camano islands. Each year the commissioners try to set aside approximately $250,000, which fluctuates depending on the timing of projects.

The second pot the commissioners dole out money from is the general fund, which Marlow said pays for salaries, wages and benefits, as well as minor repairs.

“Over the past five years, actual spending from the general fund increased about 7.6 percent on average,” Marlow said.

The total budget for parks in 2007 was $360,000, a 7.4 percent increase from the previous year.

“Parks are important to people who live on Whidbey Island and Camano Island. The commissioners continue to increase funding for parks above the basic requirements,” Marlow said.

The annual increases have helped finance the full-time, temporary employees on both islands.

Maintenance dollars are available this year for properties acquired through Conservation Futures funds, which Arnold views as a positive step in assisting with at least some of the property management and park needs exclusively on Conservation Futures properties.

“The county commissioners have been very supportive for parks projects and have approved not only several thousands of dollars from the county’s REET 2 funds, but also have increased the parks maintenance and operation for the last three years, plus a replacement tractor in the amount of $30,000 for 2007,” Arnold said.

County has limited funds

Although the commissioners recognize the importance of parks, they are constrained by competing needs for current expense money. Commissioner John Dean said other county governments around the state are strapped across the board.

“The reality about county governments, and it’s not just Island County but all rural counties in Washington, is that just about all departments may be underfunded and in need,” he said.

The public demands more deputies in the sheriff’s office, which requires higher salaries to lure them away from larger jurisdictions. Recruitment is also a problem in the prosecutor’s office, Dean said. The problem boils down to a lack of manpower.

“Human services are seriously in need, human resources needs help, the treasurer’s office struggles to keep up, work in the clerk’s office is literally piling up, the county’s technology staff is up to their necks in demands and challenges, the probation department is in a war zone of social needs, WSU extension is extended to its breaking point, and on and on it goes,” Dean said.

For the parks department specifically, the commissioner said a light at the end of the tunnel will be in the form of groups like the Trails Council on Whidbey Island and Friends of Camano Island Parks, what Dean called “good old-fashioned volunteerism.”

“If we want less government and relatively low taxes, we are going to have to agree to more public participation,” he said. “More government park service means all of us coming up with more money, or providing volunteer labor to fill gaps. We, as islanders, are going to have to come to some consensus about what our priorities are, because we can’t have it all.”

Workforce

spread thin

The county has 54 actively managed properties totaling 1,400 acres. Arnold lauded the work of her staff and the application of their skills and extensive banks of knowledge in their jobs.

“They are extraordinarily skilled,” she said. “Park technicians are kind of a catch all. They have to know both grounds maintenance, facilities maintenance, and equipment maintenance. You might have to replace a cartridge in a water fountain in the morning and you might be building a new trash receptacle in one of the parks at the end of your day. So, you have to be very skilled.”

The sheer acreage that falls under Arnold’s umbrella necessitated prioritization and development of a concrete plan.

“We have developed a system whereby, both on Whidbey and Camano, we establish our high visibility parks, the destination-type parks that people head for,” she said. “Most of those parks are in South or Central Whidbey. Those get the most attention. Island County does have property on North Whidbey, but it’s not developed park property.”

Property delineation

The multifarious uses of county land has been an issue General Services has contended with in the past. Parks property and property management are only two of the department’s responsibilities.

“Folks seem to assume that if Terri is managing a property, it must be a park,” said Betty Kemp, General Services director. “That is not necessarily so. The county has taken on Department of Natural Resources properties and their past uses have not changed. Wherein, if the commissioners designate a certain property as a ‘park’, then that property would be tied to Island County Code ‘Parks Rules and Regulations.’”

Public Works Director Bill Oakes, Kemp and Arnold placed the properties into three separate categories: Parks, Property Management and Public Works (Trails).

“The plan is to submit it to the commissioners in the near future for review and designation,” Kemp said. “Parks versus property management versus public works trails systems and their uses can be confusing for the public.”

When a storm rips through the county, the amount of debris to be cleared can be staggering. Volunteers are invaluable, but their service is ultimately limited.

“It’s really frustrating for me to try to explain to the community that I can’t give them my park techs,” Arnold said. “They just can’t do that body of work. It gets a little tricky when there are volunteer groups who steward various properties. They do a great job until it’s beyond their capacity.”

Trails Council volunteers were out last weekend clearing the Kettles Trails near Coupeville.

In the case of Saratoga Woods on South Whidbey, volunteers worked their fingers to the bones. But in the end, Arnold was forced to call a tree removal company to clean up the mess.

“There’s no mechanism in Island County for me to do this any other way,” she said. “A parks department in a larger jurisdiction would have its own tree crew, its own natural areas crew. We don’t have the manpower to routinely maintain our natural areas.”

Parks board inadequacies

Arnold inherited a seven-member parks board when she began her tenure with the county. Since then, more than half of the members have resigned and meetings have become infrequent. Lyla Snover of Coupeville served on the board for a number of years, but ultimately became frustrated with the group’s ineffectualness. She stepped down, hoping that new blood would step in and help move projects along.

“The board doesn’t really have any authority, so there was no teeth in the recommendations we made,” Snover said. “It was ineffective, in my opinion. You just kind of spin your wheels and waste your time.”

Snover has served on other boards, including the Coupeville Town Council and the Citizens Advisory Board. She said the CAB and the Technical Advisory Group both conduct valuable research and carry out the necessary legwork when evaluating potential Conservation Futures Fund projects. The county commissioners, however, always have the final say.

“After all that work, the county could do what they wanted anyway,” Snover said.

The Conservation Futures Fund could be one mechanism to help generate money for additional staff, she said, which would ensure adequate maintenance for the county land.

Since the program began, the Conservation Futures Fund has been fed by property taxes, with 6.25 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value being funneled into the pool. For a home assessed at $100,000, $6.25 would be contributed to the fund.

This year, however, the commissioners chose not to take the full amount because of the local assessment growth.

“The Conservation Futures Fund can be raised, I think,” Snover said. “It’s not as high as it could be. They would use the fund to buy more land when I was serving on the board, but then there would be no funds to do improvements or maintain that land.”

Snover added that the existence of a parks board should be marked by progress, not continual frustration.

“If you’re not going to support a board, then you don’t need to have one,” she concluded.

In its conception, Arnold said the parks board can be a valuable asset to the county.

“The advisory board has the authority to carry out many important tasks and we would like to see that happen with our county parks board,” Arnold said, adding that she has identified people in various communities who she believes would be a good fit for the board once the county commissioners are ready to appoint new members. “It’s time to build the board back up. I’m anxious to work with the commissioners on restarting a parks board with some new energy.”

When Arnold served on a steering committee for the non-motorized trail plan, she experienced firsthand the public’s collective desire for more accessible land.

“We did a ton of public outreach meetings, “she said. “And every meeting the number one thing people wanted was parks and open spaces for trails.”

County is

doing its best

General Services is not unique in its overextension. County personnel are well-versed in multitasking and putting form to extensive job descriptions inherent in local government work. Public service is the incentive, not a ballooning bank account.

“I hope our communities recognize that most county departments are maxed to the limit with workload and the parks department is no different,” Kemp said. “We will continue to manage with the resources available to us.”