The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Camping season revs up
Staff at state parks receive layoff reprieves
MADISON » A pink-slip reprieve was delivered last week to state park employees pending budget deliberations in Hartford.
Just weeks after dozens of park employees received pink slips due to state budget woes, layoffs remain on hold awaiting the budget resolution and union contract negotiations, according to Susan Whalen, deputy commissioner for environmental conservation for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
“We’re incredibly happy to have folks working in the parks” currently, said Whalen, looking ahead to a heat wave expected next week and larger crowds.
After the 2017 camping season kicked off Memorial Day weekend, unseasonably chilly, wet weather followed. Most occupied campsites at Hammonasset Beach Thursday were recreational vehicles, popup campers or trailers, with a smattering of tents appearing within the mostly unoccupied campgrounds.
The goalposts may have changed, but when the pink slips were given out a few weeks ago, “it was with the understanding that there could possibly be a reprieve if there was a budget agreement,” said Eric Hammerling, executive director of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association.
If the budget were adopted as
currently proposed, a $6.5 million cut would be expected for state parks that generate over $1 billion in revenues per year, said Hammerling.
“It makes little sense to pull more human resources away,” since every dollar invested in state parks generates $38 more in state coffers and the parks also support 9,000 private sector jobs, he added.
Beach camping
Wearing a flannel jacket Thursday during his first campout at Hammonasset Beach, father Nicholas Winters, of Coventry, sat outside a small trailer parked at a Mohawak Trail site.
The unusually cool weather may have contributed to the nine hours of sleep Winters got the night before, he said. His family, including, wife, Marcian, their month-old infant and 3- and 4-year-old children, was vacationing in Madison for a few days to celebrate some birthdays, he said.
The small group were the only tenants on Mohawk Trail, offering them almost total privacy amid the natural beauty provided by the wetlands surrounding them.
“The facilities are amazing, it’s beautiful,” said Winters’ mother, Irene Sprague, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Sprague visits the state several times a year and was impressed by the beauty of the state park, she said.
Cuddling Winters’ sleeping newborn, friend Marilee Manning, of Bolton, said she wanted to purchase a season parks pass, at a cost of $67 for Connecticut residents, but instead paid the $9 fee to park per visit since she was unsure how long she’d get the chance to use it.
“I don’t know if the parks will remain open,” Manning said.
The seasonal parks pass is a good value and consumers should feel assured that they can use it all season, but park closures may continue, Whalen confirmed.
“We’re going to continue to run all the parks we can with the budget we have, and next year’s fiscal budget will respond to that appropriation.”
Passport to Parks
Legislators are actively debating a funding solution, a proposal called “Passport to the Parks,” which would automatically charge residents a $10 motor vehicle registration fee every other year through the Department of Motor Vehicles. The fee would generate $14 million for the parks, according to Hammerling.
The real payoff is that all Connecticut drivers could access all state parks for free.
“The biggest concern on both sides of the aisle is that even if the revenue is captured through DMV that there is no guarantee that funding couldn’t be swept up and used for other purposes,” said Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr., the Senate Democratic chairman of the General Assembly’s Environment Committee.
Kennedy has set out legislation in Senate Bill 994 to protect funding through an amendment that creates the CT Parks Foundation, a nonprofit corporation to receive funds to hold in trust. “That’s one of the ideas on the table,” Kennedy added.
Over the past two years, the committee has looked to establish alternative funding streams, said Kennedy, adding that Connecticut is one of three states whose parks funding relies on general fund revenue.
“Forty-seven other states have other streams of income, including 15 to 20 that don’t rely on any at all,” Kennedy added.
Manning, Sprague and Winters all agreed that a Passport to the Parks would be a great deal for residents who get free use of state parks at a nominal cost.
“You should use the parks and even if you aren’t using it maybe your kids are or your neighbors are,” said Manning. “People would not miss $10.”
“The fact remains that it doesn’t appear they will have a budget in place,” said Pam Adams, a volunteer with Friends of CT State Parks. “It’s going to look pretty grim as far as people enjoying their summers here.”
Shorter season
DEEP is trying to minimize the impact by shrinking the camping dates available, and focusing “all dollars on a short window of time,” Adams added.
Layoffs would leave behind a skeletal staff of about 33 full-time workers to manage 110 state parks and 15 campgrounds, according to Hammerling. Cuts have resulted in a reduction in lifeguard staff, the limiting of campground seasons in the state parks and the closure of four campgrounds for the season: Devil’s Hopyard, Macedonia Brook, Salt Rock and Pachaug State Forest.
People are very concerned about the state parks and they’re worried they won’t be open this summer, and that campgrounds will close, Kennedy said.
“For so many people it’s their refuge,” he added.
Millions of people still want to visit these facilities, but given the lack of staff, “people will rethink where they spend vacation dollars,” Adams said.