WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Simple, you need to call or email your city councilor, and tell them: PLEASE DIRECT THE EUGENE PARKS DEPT. TO USE 2006 PARKS BOND FUNDS FOR SKATEPARK CONSTRUCTION COSTS.

Not sure who your councilor is? Click HERE to see the map. If you live in…
Cal Young (Ward 5): Mike Clark
mike.clark@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-8345
NW Eugene (Ward 6): Pat Farr
pat.m.farr@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-8346
West Eugene (Ward 8): Chris Pryor
chris.e.pryor@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-8348
NE Eugene (Ward 4): George Poling
george.a.poling@ci.eugene.or.us 541-517-3110
East Eugene (Ward 3): Alan Zelenka
alan.zelenka@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-8343
South Eugene (Ward 2): Betty Taylor
betty.l.taylor@ci.eugene.or.us 541-338-9947
College Hill to City View (Ward 1): George Brown
george.r.brown@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-8341
Whiteaker/North Central Eugene (Ward 7): Andrea Ortiz
andrea.f.ortiz@ci.eugene.or.us 541-688-5588

And tell the mayor too:
kitty.piercy@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-5010

#1 – Closing the Construction Costs Gap
(the price to build the skatepark above the total funds available)

#2 – Ongoing Maintenance Costs
(the price to maintain the skatepark)

The SES board has come up with answers to both of these issues…but for it to happen we need your help.

THE DETAILS:

Here are the basics on the funding plan:

Construction – Eugene voters passed a bond in 2006 that set aside special funding to improve existing parks and purchase new park lands. This is money waiting to be spent– it’s not part of the Parks Department’s capital improvement project funds, or their general operating budget. We want City Council to direct a portion of the bond funds to build the W-J skatepark.

Maintenance – We have been informed that the Parks Department is facing significant maintenance funding issues. Our goal is to use the bond funds to construct the park, and then SES will help craft a public-private hybrid funding model. We will allocate all the funds raised thus far by SES and Eugene Rotary to be used in conjuction with some city funds currently already allocated to maintaining the space in its current form. All of these combined funds will go to a third party that will be in charge of maintaining and operating the park. We’re talking with Kidsports about assuming this role and they’re excited about helping us make this a reality.

What now? The issue will be under consideration at a City Council Work Session sometime this spring (we don’t yet have the date). If it advances from there, it will go to a public discussion and a vote at a City Council meeting probably later this summer.

What can you do?
Call or email your city councilor, and tell them: PLEASE DIRECT THE EUGENE PARKS DEPT. TO USE 2006 PARKS BOND FUNDS FOR SKATEPARK CONSTRUCTION COSTS.  This is Democracy in action so please don’t be afraid to act.

Not sure who your councilor is? Click HERE to see the map.  If you live in…..

Cal Young (Ward 5): Mike Clark
mike.clark@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-8345
NW Eugene (Ward 6): Pat Farr
pat.m.farr@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-8346
West Eugene (Ward 8): Chris Pryor
chris.e.pryor@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-8348
NE Eugene (Ward 4): George Poling
george.a.poling@ci.eugene.or.us 541-517-3110
East Eugene (Ward 3): Alan Zelenka
alan.zelenka@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-8343
South Eugene (Ward 2): Betty Taylor
betty.l.taylor@ci.eugene.or.us 541-338-9947
College Hill to City View (Ward 1): George Brown
george.r.brown@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-8341
Whiteaker/North Central Eugene (Ward 7): Andrea Ortiz
andrea.f.ortiz@ci.eugene.or.us 541-688-5588

And tell the mayor too:
kitty.piercy@ci.eugene.or.us 541-682-5010

To see a copy of the Work Session topic currently that will be under discussion, click HERE.

Short Version: There are some exciting things on the horizon, we’ve come a long way, and we’re optimistic about the way things are shaping up. We may be a little quiet these days, but the SES board is working hard behind the scenes on a funding plan that addresses both the logistics and the dollars that need to be in play before we get our shovels out.

Long Version:  Here’s the deal.  There are at least three pieces to the skatepark puzzle:  1) Construction costs; 2) Operations and Maintenance costs; and, 3) Replacing the existing bathrooms.

Construction Costs
Through a boatload of hard work, SES has raised about $50,000.  Eugene Rotary has raised about $40,000 (and pledged to raise $100,000).  The city has contributed $292,000 to the project.  That puts us at about $392,000 in hand.  By the time it is all said and done, the City plans to spend about $130,000 paying its own internal “soft” costs (basically, the salaries and benefits of the time that city staff has put in to help plan the project).  The City also plans to spend about $89,000 on electrical and plumbing infrastructure upgrades as well as re-landscaping around the area.  Dreamland was paid about $45,000 for doing the skatepark design.  Dreamland has estimated that the skatepark-specific construction costs will be $628,000.  That puts the total project costs at about $892,000.  This leaves a $500,000 capital cost gap. 

Operations & Maintenance
Additionally, the City has recently told SES that they don’t have sufficient operation and maintenance funding to take care of the skatepark when it is built.  However, they have concluded that they currently spend about $40,000 per year to maintain the existing footprint of where the skatepark will be located.  And, they have indicated that if we craft a serious hybrid public-private partnership, they would be willing to contribute their current level of expenditures on a yearly basis to the partnership. 

The Bathrooms
From the outset of the skatepark planning process and for public safety and humanitarian reasons, for years there has been discussion of replacing the grim and unsafe bathrooms that are currently in use at the W-J Park.  On July 1, 2011, the city set aside $250,000 for new bathrooms at the W-J Park.  However, Parks has no desire to use these funds on new bathrooms unless the skatepark and related park improvements are constructed.

The Plan
On one hand, you could say all of this paints a pretty bleak picture.  Instead, we prefer to see the glass as half full and are in the process of strategizing a plan to address the capital costs funding gap as well as craft a hybrid public-private operations and maintenance solution.  If some key folks are receptive to our ideas, we will release the plan to the public later this fall.  In the mean time, have you donated yet?

Also, if you want to see the recent R-G Article on the current state of the skatepark project, click here (note:  not all of the article’s facts are accurate, but the general nature of the article is a fair representation of where things stand).

- Maintaining Current and Future Parks, Recreation & Open Space (PROS) Services (October 2010)
- Managing Eugene’s Parks and Natural Areas – Meeting the Challenge
- City Council Work Session: Funding Gap for Maintaining Current and Future Parks and Recreation Facilities
- Johnny Medlin’s video testimony to City Council

How does this matter to those of us in support of building a downtown flagship skatepark? Although we anticipate robust public-private partnerships, especially with regards to ensuring Public Safety, all of us in SkateEugene have been anticipating that the Parks Dept. would operate and manage the skatepark after it was built.  In fact, the original partnership agreement between SES and Parks specifically stated, “Along with its other park maintenance responsibilities, POS will assume responsibility for ongoing maintenance of the skatepark facility upon project completion” (click here to see the original document).

Unfortunately, however, on March 29th, Parks staff informed the SES Board that based on their operations and maintenance (O&M) shortfall, any new projects not yet under construction may be required to have specifically earmarked long-term O&M funding in place before construction could commence.  The Board asked for more details and on June 21st, Parks staff forwarded a detailed spreadsheet along with a short explanation.  Here is a relevant excerpt of the explanation:

“The total for the second worksheet is about $99,000 annually, which includes the direct FTE costs, plus overhead costs for management, supervision, and materials and supplies. In other words, this represents the full cost to the city to do the required O&M work.  In order to move ahead with construction of all phases of the skatepark, we would need to have a plan in place to address all of the O&M tasks outlined in the second table.  Our current budget does not include any contribution toward the $99,000, so if the plan entails the city conducting the work, all of it must be covered somehow from funds we do not currently have…I see the attached information as the starting point of the discussion about how to address the unmet O&M needs for a new skatepark. ”

One logical question that follows is something like, “Wait, there is already a park there that receives a great deal of negative use and needs to be maintained, so how can a skatepark that will result in positive use cost so much more?”  The answer can be found in one of the Parks’ assumptions:  “Existing uses will be displaced to other areas of park site.  These maintenance needs will remain.“  In essence, the assumption by Parks is that the community of users currently frequenting the park will be displaced somewhere else and they believe these individuals will probably not go downtown because of ongoing efforts to make the area feel safe for pedestrians and they probably won’t go to private property because the police response is more likely, but will instead go to another part of the parks system and wherever they go, there will be the same amount of O&M efforts to clean up after them.  Therefore, their thinking is that all O&M for the skatepark will be entirely brand new O&M.

The upshot at this point in time is that unless something changes in the Parks’ analysis or their budgeting priorities, we are being told that in addition to raising the remaining $230,000 to complete 12,000 sf Phase A (or the remaining $500,000 to complete the entire 23,000 sf skatepark), we will are also responsible for ensuring a $100,000 O&M budget or its equivalent.  For how long?  We don’t know for sure yet.  We have been told that, “one or two years likely won’t be sufficient.”

Click here to see the summary Parks budget over the last 10 years.

To see the final Construction Specifications, click here.

(UPDATE) Phase: 1 complete

Site now has it’s own favicon, is easier to navigate, and has better access to blog posts and our new category system.

Next… We will be adding even more functionality with social network buttons, faster page loads, an even more unified look, and more!

(UPDATE) Phase: 2 Complete

Site now loads faster, social networking buttons  are now live (go ahead and like or share whatever post or page you want! over a wide range of networks!) the color scheme has been further unified, Donation pages have been created.

More to come as we ramp up for fun this spring and summer!

(From BC – Many thanks to Amar Ashworth and Janet Brown for moving the website ball way ahead!)