Martin: Give water to parks, not pools

A Colorado Springs councilwoman asked the parks department Monday to dig deeper and find the money to irrigate all the city's parks at the recommended level this year.

Her initial idea: close the city's swimming pools this summer - not for the water, but for the money it could free up to spend on irrigating parks.

"These are not easy decisions to make, but if closing the pools for one summer kept our 135 parks alive in this community, then I certainly would like to have the opportunity to have that discussion amongst council," Councilwoman Jan Martin said.

A tight budget forced the parks department to slash its irrigation spending by about $767,000 this year. It costs about $2.5 million to give all the city's parks the recommended 24 inches of water "to produce a lawn of good to excellent quality."

But only 15 parks are getting the recommended ration.

The rest are getting half.

"There are 135 neighborhood parks that we risk, literally, dying off this summer if we don't give them adequate water, (and it will cost) $6 million next year to reseed and replace those parks," Martin said. "I personally feel that it's irresponsible for us not to go back and reconsider options."

Paul Butcher, director of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services, said his department has already been affected by the budget crunch, but he'll give the council options to consider.

"We have pools, ice centers, City Auditorium, community centers," he said. "Everything is an option to look at, and the pools would just be one of them."

Cutting an additional $767,000 from his budget would be "painful," he said.

"We would be laying people off," he said. "There's just no question about it. All we're down to is people. Program supplies are gone. All those other things are gone."

Martin, a Colorado Springs native, said she understands times are tough. But the community cherishes the city's parks, she said.

"Our park system, which was actually started by General Palmer, has always been sort of a core value of this community, and the thought that we would allow 135 parks, or 635 acres, to just die when we have some options, to me, is a very sad state of affairs for our community," she said.

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Call the writer at 476-1623.