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(Editor’s Note: Parks Committee member Mary Beth Milliken says the Township Parks budget is woefully thin, and no volunteer force is large enough or adequately equipped to maintain our parks year round. Read on for her notes. -jb)
In response to recent comments on the Gazette and social media regarding our Peninsula Township parks and their needs, I would like to make a couple of clarifying statements.
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I have been a member of the Parks Committee for a few years now. Our 823 acres of Township-owned or managed park lands are one of Old Mission Peninsula’s most valuable and most used assets. They require management and constant maintenance.
The Township budget allocated for our parks is woefully thin; every year, projects are turned down or delayed for lack of funds. It is wonderful that residents have donated so much to our parks over the years, whether it be pickleball courts, a baseball diamond, trees, benches, paving (thank you, Elmer’s) and so on, but we cannot equip our parks with donations alone.
There are even those who suggest that we decrease the budget for parks and instead, let volunteers maintain the parks. Peninsula Township residents are very generous as volunteers, but there is not a volunteer force large enough or adequately equipped to maintain our parks year round.
For those who make such comments or suggestions, try to visit each one of our parks and critically evaluate what it takes to maintain and manage what we are so lucky to have.
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Even back when I was on the Park Board, it was time to investigate hiring an experienced Parks Manager. While this is of course an additional expense, OMP does have extensive park lands that demand full time attention and residents continue to support additional land conservation/acquisition into our parks system. A Parks Manager would also relieve the burden of the town board – currently the Clerk is the town board rep to the parks committee and it appears that this has become an extensive project for the Clerk. A Parks Manager would relieve the Town Board of the daily/monthly tasks, fundraising, and grant writing. OMP residents have always been supportive of millages to fund land acquisitions. I suspect that, given a proper public presentation of historical costs for parks, as well as projected costs over the next 10 years, that the public might be supportive of a millage to fund the parks/Park Manager. There would still be a place for volunteers, scouts, etc to help in the parks – that is an important and welcome component 🙂