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tibber wrote:Warren Meyer was on TV today saying he was interested in trying to get contracts to rent the parks and run them. I found this about his company: http://camprrm.com/
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Breakthrough reached in Tonto Bridge talks
Payson, State Parks near deal to keep park open this summer
By Pete Aleshire
March 2, 2010
Payson and Arizona State Parks officials have made a “breakthrough” in efforts to keep Tonto Natural Bridge open all summer.
The State Parks Board will likely act on the proposed agreement March 18 allowing Payson to take over operation of the world’s largest travertine arch for the key summer travel months, said Payson Mayor Kenny Evans.
State Parks officials have identified a potential source of funding to pay the nearly $1 million in balloon payments for purchase of the property due this year and next, clearing the major hurdle to an agreement to keep the park open, said Evans.
Meanwhile, Payson officials have identified donors and volunteer groups that can contribute the roughly $30,000 in additional funds needed to keep the park open in the course of the summer.
“It’s a major step forward,” said Evans. “We’ve arrived at a general agreement on whatever it takes to keep it open under the current plan.”
The Friends of Tonto Natural Bridge will meet this week to discuss fund-raising plans. “Between their help and other private help, we’ll be able to keep it open without tapping into Town of Payson funds,” said Evans.
State Parks officials have now completed the structural and roof repairs on the historic lodge, which once housed guests and a restaurant and has provided space for the gift shop since the State State Parks took over. If volunteers can apply the final finishing touches on the inside, the lodge can reopen as a money-making gift shop.
The current plan would provide a way to pay for the two park rangers and perhaps other state park employees to stay on past the planned June closing. The Friends of Tonto Natural Bridge and the existing core of park volunteers would augment the state parks staff, which would remain in charge under the temporary arrangement.
Long-term solution unknown
However, the town and the State Parks Board would continue to negotiate concerning the park’s long-term future, which Payson hopes will include a private contractor that could operate the park, invest in money-making improvements like opening the lodge to overnight visitors, adding cabins and operating a campground.
“State Parks employees would continue to handle all the money (in the interim agreement this summer). We’re simply finding a pile of money to assist with operating costs so we can continue through the summer, which will hopefully buy us enough time to negotiate a longer-term solution,” said Evans. “Ultimately, we want to not only re-open the park, but to open a bigger, better park.”
The deal could provide crucial support for the summer travel season in a Rim Country economy lopsidedly dependent on tourism, with the construction sector still all but dead.
International tourists
The best-known tourist attraction in Rim Country internationally, Tonto Natural Bridge at its peak drew more than 93,000 visitors annually pumping $3.6 million into the local economy. Weekday closures last year and an avalanche of publicity about state park woes cut visitation to just 65,000.
The park had nearly reached economic break-even at peak visitation, but the deficit has gaped wider as visitation fell. State Parks’ figures put the cost of operating the park at some $170,000 annually, most of that for staffing costs.
The state has identified a source of funding for the $450,000 payment due by June, with a final payment of about $500,000 to complete purchase of the site next year. Without those final two payments, the park might have reverted to the family group that agreed to sell it to the state nearly a decade ago.
Access improved
The bridge operated for many years as a privately run attraction, with a spring-fed swimming pool, a pick-your-own orchard, cabins, lodge, restaurant and a campground. The state significantly improved access by paving the steep, narrow road down into the canyon, but shut down most of the additional, profit-making elements for lack of maintenance money.
The state Legislature has repeatedly swept operating and maintenance funds for state parks, swallowing up even accounts fed by gate fees. The State Parks system in the last 15 years has nearly doubled the number of sites open to the public, but the most recent round of legislative cuts have reduced the operating budget to levels lower than they stood a decade ago.
As a result, the State Parks Board recently voted to close most of the parks in the system, leaving open a handful of money-making parks — including Kartchner Caverns, Slide Rock in Sedona and several camping and boating parks along the Colorado River.
Cities and towns have been scrambling to find ways to keep nearby parks open. Yuma has already taken over operation of a historic waterfront park there.
Volunteers raising money
Evans said volunteer and fund-raising efforts of the Friends of Tonto Natural Bridge will prove crucial. Private donors have already promised the bulk of the $20,000 to $30,000 needed to keep the park open. The Friends will have to raise roughly $7,000 in additional funding. In addition, park supporters hope to mount a “media” blitz including billboards along Highway 87 to make sure summer travelers know the bridge will remain open all season.
Meanwhile, the town will continue to negotiate with the State Parks Board about the future of the soaring, cavernous arch that groundwater and Pine Creek have dissolved in a massive cliff-face of limestone.
Water has dissolved a great passage through the solid cliff face, with a stream running through the middle from one travertine-tinted pool to another. Inside the great arch, water drips from fractures in a ceiling so distant that it seems like a continual pattering of rain.
“I think we’re covered in the current budget scenario,” said Evans.
“If the state budget deteriorates further, then we have Plan B ready,” which would involve finding a private concessionaire to take over operations. “We have multiple concessionaire interested now.”
That's awful, Liz!azbackpackr wrote:I just got on unemployment yesterday! I had two part time jobs, lost one of them. You do it all online now, and over the phone. You never even see a live person.
Sure, Not.big_load wrote:tibber wrote:Warren Meyer was on TV today saying he was interested in trying to get contracts to rent the parks and run them. I found this about his company: http://camprrm.com/
Is he the Secretary of State, brought to you by Carl's Jr.?
Arizona parks system's future in doubt
Casey Newton
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 18, 2010
Arizona's parks system is limping into the next fiscal year with few assurances it will exist after June 30, the result of lawmakers reducing its budget by nearly 80 percent since 2007.
Lawmakers cut an additional $3.9 million in the special session that adjourned Tuesday. Efforts to save the system through legislation have stalled. And while discussions continue, parks continue to close.
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park is scheduled to close March 29, but at least six more will be kept open by transferring their costs to community partners. Homolovi Ruins and Lyman Lake state parks closed in February at a cost of nearly $200,000.
In 2007, the system included 30 parks and recreation areas and had a budget of $66 million. The system draws more than 2 million annual visitors, and a Northern Arizona University study put its economic benefit to state and local governments at $266 million a year.
But after a series of cuts, including the $3.9 million in fund transfers approved Tuesday, the system's budget is roughly $15 million. By June 30, officials expect to operate just nine parks - and that's only if they can get a loan from the state.
If Gov. Jan Brewer signs the bills as expected by Saturday, parks still will need special legislation for a $3 million loan to cover operating expenses after June 30.
Uncertainty over the system's future has led to an outcry from residents, who complain that Brewer and GOP lawmakers have resisted alternatives that would save the park system.
"This is our worst nightmare," said Bill Thornton, a member of the Arizona Heritage Alliance, a non-profit group that supports parks.
Parks supporters say they have called and e-mailed dozens of lawmakers and the governor in an effort to promote House Concurrent Resolution 2040, a measure that would ask voters to establish a $12 fee to be paid at the time of vehicle registration. Motorists could enter all state parks without additional charge, and the fee would create a long-term revenue source.
The measure has been held in the Appropriations Committee by its chairman, Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills. Kavanagh said it would not work because the Arizona Constitution requires license-plate fees to be spent on roads.
But Kavanagh, who called the parks "our state treasures," said he will sponsor legislation next week allowing motorists to donate $10 to the system when they register their cars.
"If the parks advocates are correct, and there is overwhelming support for the parks, the voluntary donations should raise what they need," he said.
Still, residents bristled at lawmakers' absence from parks board meetings over the past year.
"I wish these legislators could be here and hear this outpouring of support from people whose parks are so precious to them," said Thornton, who was among dozens of residents who traveled to Apache Junction on Wednesday for a meeting of the parks board. "They're the ones who need to listen to this. And it speaks volumes, in a way, that they're not here."
Roxanne Cheney, a member of the Friends of Roper Lake, said she pleaded with Brewer to keep parks open during a recent appearance in Safford.
"She was adamant that there was no other choice but to close parks," Cheney said. "We mentioned that this is about jobs, jobs, jobs. This is revenue-producing. . . . But that went right over her head."
In an e-mail, Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman said some parks had to be closed to accommodate a $4 billion budget deficit.
With help from lawmakers seemingly in doubt, the parks board on Wednesday voted to transfer to community partners the costs of keeping five parks open:
- Fort Verde State Historic Park to Camp Verde, for one year with options for two more. Camp Verde will pay the board $105,000 to operate it next year.
- Yuma State Historic Park to Yuma, which will operate the park for three years with options for six more.
- Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park to Tombstone, which will operate the park for three years with options for four more.
- Riordan Mansion in Flagstaff to the Arizona Historical Society, which will operate the park for three years with options for six more.
- Tonto Natural Bridge to Payson until at least Sept. 27. Payson will pay the board $25,000 to operate it until September. A long-term agreement is under discussion.
The board also approved a two-month extension in the operations of Roper Lake State Park under an agreement with the Department of Game and Fish. The park had been set to close March 29.
Parks officials also are pursuing agreements with Apache Junction to keep Lost Dutchman State Park open and will meet today with Eloy officials about Picacho Peak State Park. Both parks are scheduled to close June 3.
With the 2011 budget passed and awaiting Brewer's signature, time is running out for the parks staff to get legislation passed to keep the system intact.
"The session is in a dead sprint," said Jay Ziemann, assistant parks director and the system's lobbyist. "Members have very little interest any more in being down at the state Capitol."
Adding further uncertainty to the budget is the fact that the Joint Legislative Budget Committee has yet to approve about $4.2 million in fund transfers needed to pay for operating expenses.
The parks staff generated those funds by canceling grants and capital projects.
The system's fate will be clearer at the parks board meeting next month, said Renee Bahl, the parks director.
Board members are not optimistic.
"We're so depressed up here, I don't think we can even answer a question," said the board's chairman, Reese Woodling, after a bleak presentation from Kent Ennis, parks budget director.
"I don't know how I can keep doing this every month," Ennis replied.
Woodling threw his hands up.
"It just keeps getting worse and worse," he said.