Below is the report that Larry Parsons's gave Nov 18, 2002 to the joint meeting of the Princeton, NJ, Borough Council and Township committee. The report is from the Task Force whose job it was to give a recommendation about how to organize and care for the open space owned by both municipalities.
The Parks Task Force was convened at the request of Wendy Benchley, Princeton Borough Council, and Bill Enslin, Princeton Township Committee with the assistance of Jack Roberts, Joint Recreation Department and Doug Schlieffer of the Princeton Environmental Commission. Our group consists of Larry Parsons (Chair), David Breithaupt, Colleen Hall, Eric Lear, Andrew Love, John Rassweiler, and Gail Ullman. The group first convened on November 28, 2001. Meetings were held several times per month. The charge of the Task Force was to characterize and assess the Current Park inventory, and management system. Then to make a recommendation as to how to manage what we have.
In a few words, our parks constitute an incredible resource in Princeton Borough and Township. We have calculated that there are 1138 acres of parkland owned by the two municipalities. There are some 36 of them by name (23 in the Township & 13 in the borough). There are 114 acres devoted to Intensively Active use. That is where regularly scheduled activities especially sports take place, like Community Park. Casually Active includes 138 acres. These are parks where space and equipment are set up for active, in varying degrees, but unscheduled play, like Barbara Sigmund Park and Marquand Park. The other section is Natural & Woodland space with 886 acres. These are woods, trails, meadows, etc., like Woodfield Reservation Park and sections of Marquand Park. As can imagine many of these parks by name fall into more than one category. Please note that 59 acres have been added to this inventory in the last two years. According to the Princeton Township Tax Assessor’s office the per acre average evaluation is $135,000. Therefore we calculate that the value of these properties is at least $154 million.
The steps that the Task force has performed in completing our charge include the following:
We learned from our survey that most of the management of park lands is focused on caring for the Intensively Active areas since the activities themselves require the attention of the Recreation Department and the supporting maintenance from the public works and engineering departments. These areas get the most concentrated use therefor they require, as well as deserve, a great deal of attention. We learned that there are groups who are willing to volunteer to help with educational programs as well as care for some the physical needs of various parks. Citizens expressed the desire to see more management and improvement of the less active spaces especially for signage, on site parking, sanitary facilities, equipment, and safety precautions.
There is documented evidence from real life of unfortunate problems occurring already in the Natural & Woodland parks as well as the Casually Active ones. There are supporting materials here for you to read in order to illustrate what we are mentioning here. For example, the Harrison Street Park was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. In Woodfield Reservation, there was a well-publicized incident where a neighbor removed numerous trees on the Reservation adjacent to his property. There are other less well-known problems like hunters building blinds on the property and utility easements being granted improperly. Also, there is information relating to an incident in Turning Basin Park where a citizen who reserved the park expressed legitimate complaints about the condition of the equipment and the cleanliness of the facility. These are just a few recorded incidents. With 1138 acres, you can imagine what problem can arise if the properties are not maintained and overseen properly, actively and professionally.
We view the Governing Bodies as having Fiduciary or Stewardship responsibility for all the park property. We believe we must have:
The main benefits of this
active management include these five primary points:
1.
Coordination. We must be in a position to take advantage of
opportunities to coordinate programs, information, technology, assets, and
talent with the State of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and
Parks Department as well as
2. Oversight. The example mentioned a moment ago relating to Woodfield Reservation speaks to the importance and the value of keeping an eye on our property. Furthermore there are regulations pertaining to the Green Acres Grants that require periodic inspections of acquisitions that they finance.
3. Program Creation & Coordination. Beyond the environmental importance of preserving open land, we are obligated to provide a place for the enjoyment, exercise, and education of our citizens. The responses to our survey confirm interest in educational programs for children and adults. School administration expressed great interest in using the public parks as a place for teaching and studying science. There are special interest groups who can create and operate unique programs related to such as birding, gardening, biking, and hiking.
4. Resource Management. Real property must have supervision of its integrity, safety, equipment maintenance, and ownership rights. Financial management to insure that our tax dollars are spent wisely and there is value received for money spent. Furthermore, our preliminary investigation at the state level reveals that the are no funds currently available to fund park maintenance projects. It is important to initiate and coordinate programs with community groups. Community volunteers are a great resource for us to tap, saving money in the process.
5.
Budget Control
and Oversight. Determination of real costs by closely overseeing and cost
accounting could save money in the long run.
The objectives for parks management operation would be:
1.
To care for and manage the areas of publicly owned open
space of the two Princetons
2.
To Publicize and encourage the use and maintenance of
privately owned/publicly accessible open space. To communicate with the county
and state parks personnel to encourage proper maintenance of those parks in our
municipal boundaries. By example we
refer to the Woods at the Institute for Advanced Study as privately owned open
space that is access by the public. On the other hand, Herrontown Woods, which
is a
3. To promote the use of our natural resources for our citizens for education and enjoyment. Birding, hiking, jogging, biking, gardening are some of the passive activities that come to mind
4. To achieve efficient and effective use of our staff resources, coordinating Recreation Dept., engineering, public works, and other related departments, agencies, and commissions.
5. To coordinate the efforts of community volunteers with the professional staffs of the municipalities they support. An example is to support and reinforce the adopt-a-park program with the public works departments. Efficient and effective use of volunteers can leverage the work force and save money, but it needs full time direction
6. To marshal financial resources efficiently. Seek and apply for funds for capital items, maintenance, and programs from governments, foundations, and special interest groups.
We recommend a restructuring of the Joint Recreation Department into the Joint Recreation & Parks Department. Furthermore, we recommend the creation of a position of Parks Manager. He/she would report to the Director of Recreation and Parks. As such he/she would be assigned as a member of the Princeton Environmental Commission. The park manager would have broad responsibilities for park oversight and management. In a nutshell, he/she would have the job of bringing to reality all those objectives we just outlined.
We are providing you with a copy of a detailed Job Description. In respect for time I’ll summarize the main points.
· Manage the parks through the Adopt-A-Park program, environmental activities, and integrated plan for the Borough and Township
· Grant Development and Administration
· Environmental analysis of our sites plus the GIS mapping and analysis
· Education program initiation, development , and implementation
· Planning with the Planning Board, Shade Tree Commissions, Environmental Commission, and the Historic Preservation Commission
· Budgeting and fiscal responsibility
To have such a qualified person on staff with an
administrative assistant the estimated cost $100,000 plus/minus
? depending on benefits. The maintenance costs would draw on the
current budget and are already included in budgets to a large degree. The park manager would have to build his/her
own budget and to defend it based on the work he/she would do. Realistically we see that there would need to
be some money budgeted for the initial operations. We checked the voting record for the
referenda that approved the “Open Space Tax” in both municipalities. They
passed by very large majorities. In our
minds, that underscores the citizens’ endorsement and approval of the park
acquisitions you have made, but also it implies that they expect these
investments to be maintained properly.
These are minimal costs versus the $154million land value.