Leverage and Recreation

How the Lansing parks millage stretches green into more green

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In the early 1800s, vast flocks of now-extinct passenger pigeons took days to go by.

Once upon a time (meaning the 1960s and ‘70s), the fulltime Lansing parks staff topped 100, including three landscape engineers, according to former Lansing City Councilman Jim Blair.

"It took a half hour for everyone to punch out in the afternoon," Blair said.

Now the parks take up about 7 percent of the citys total budget, compared to 20 percent in the late 1970s.

But Lansings parks are far from extinct.

"Give me a place to stand and a lever and I can move the Earth," Archimedes said (so they say).

By itself, Lansings parks millage, up for its regular fiveyear renewal Aug. 4, is not an earth mover. The one-mill levy is expected to pull in about $3 million a year and costs a homeowner with a house valued at $50,000 about $25 a year. For the current fiscal year, which began July 1, the parks budget is about $10.9 million overall, of which $7.9 million comes from the General Fund and the rest from the millage.

But the millage is a strong lever. Lansings park system still offers its citizens a grand diversity of moments, from a sunset at the refurbished, rose-covered pavilion of Frances Park overlooking the Grand River to the smack of skin on a basketball court at downtown Ferris Park.

A lean crew of about 20 year-round staffers manages a sprawling system of 114 parks, three cemeteries, two swimming pools, one golf course, 16 miles of River Trail and four community centers. That number swells to about 100 staffers in the summer, including part-time jobs such as lifeguards and summer camp guides. Fewer than 20 employees in the Public Service Department handle parks maintenance year-round. Part-time reinforcements are added in summer.

The system plants city people in green places throughout life and beyond, from programs that introduce pre-schoolers to nature and sports to the guy who sells the graves at the cemeteries.

"We have a huge park system," Parks Board member and City Council candidate Adam Hussain said. "With city revenues declining over the last several years, the money weve had to actually spend on our parks has decreased substantially. The power is not only the money the millage generates, but the leverage it gives us to do exciting things."

The key is a growing web of nonprofits and ad hoc Friends organizations, along with the citys use of parks millage money to leverage outside grants.

Hard leverage

After more than 100 years of land donations and purchases used to create parks and trails, Lansing has greened into a city that is a forest. National Recreation and Park As sociation’s park and open space guidelines say communities should have about six to 10 acres of parkland per 1,000 people. Lansing has about 18 acres per 1,000 people.

As late as 2006, the Parks Department had 96 employees. When property values took a sharp dive after the 2008 recession, so did parks revenue.

By 2011, the staff was down to 17, owing to cutbacks, attrition, the transfer of 18 employees to Ingham County (when the county took over the Potter Park Zoo) and 31 to the Public Service Dept.

The parks millage, first approved by voters 25 years ago and renewed every five years, has helped to offset these hits, but the millage itself desiccated when property values dried up after the 2008 recession.

"We got beat up, like everybody else," Parks Board Chairman Rick Kibbey said. "We tried to hold on and continue the services people expect and enjoy."

Two force multipliers — one hard, the other soft — stretch the parks millage over a lot of acreage.

If a project fits in with the parks master plan, millage funds can attract matching grants from the state and federal government to complete big projects. Last years restoration of Lansing biggest park, 200-acre Crego Park, after being closed for 20 years because of environmental contamination, is the citys most spectacular showcase for hard leverage yet.

"This is one of the things we really like to do with the millage," Brett Kaschinske, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said. So far, Lansing parks millage money has leveraged $4 million in additional funding, mostly from Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grants. In Cregos case, a $250,000 commitment by the city was used to snag half a million dollars from the DNR. Cregos 15-acre Fidelity Lake was equipped with an accessible canoe/ kayak boat launch, a fishing dock over the deepest part of the lake. The park was hooked up to the River Trail and the lake was stocked for fishing.

Another leveraging coup for the 2010-2015 millage was the 2012 Saginaw Street Bridge and replacement of the rickety underpass at the heart of the River Trail, prone to flooding and freezing. Some $60,000 from the city for the trail upgrades dovetailed with a head-friendly design of the $6 million Saginaw Street Bridge.

Last fall, the crown jewel of the citys park system, the River Trail, got a potent new force multiplier. Ingham County voters approved a trails millage that is expected to generate $3.5 million for maintenance and new trails.

Last month, Ingham County hired a consultant to work on a plan for the trails millage and expects to have the plan in place by early 2016.

Kaschinske said about $960,000 of the projected $3.5 million generated by the county trails millage will come from Lansing, so he expects a substantial part of the money to come back.

Kaschinske has sent the county a laundry list of items, from new pavement in older stretches to bridge replacements and erosion control measures.

"Can we expand?" Kaschinske said. "Yes, but only after maintenance issues are taken care of."

Any trail fixes the county millage takes care of will lift a little bit more pressure off the Lansing parks budget.

The power of friends

Force Multiplier Two is softer, but more far-reaching and laden with unexploited potential. A growing number of Friends organizations, from informal groups of gardeners to organized nonprofits such as the Fenner Conservancy, stewards of the Fenner Nature Center, are taking over the jobs the Parks Department handled in its passenger pigeon years.

Fenner is the park systems showcase of public/nonprofit collaboration. Beginning in the late 1950s, Lansing owned and operated the Fenner Arboretum. A Friends of Fenner group, begun in 1983, helped with tasks such as planting native grasses and pulling invasive plants.

When the Parks Department suffered big cutbacks in the wake of the 2008 economic downturn, the city was ready to make it a "passive use park," with no educational programs for visitors, churches and school groups.

The Friends contracted with the city to operate the park, delivering all programming and assuming the cost of trail maintenance. (The city pays for maintenance of the parks main building and the parking lot.) This year, the Conservancy went from two to three full-time paid staffers. Money comes from grants, dues from about 250 members and program fees.

The Norris Ingells Nature Education for Youth scholarship fund, funded by donors, issued $13,000 in scholarships to students for public school transport and residents.

Every child that applied for camp last year received assistance.

About 600 kids came to camp last year.

"We ended up dividing the responsibilities," the Parks Board’s Kibbey said. "That worked very, very well and served as a model for other facilities."

The millage is the watering can that makes it all possible, according to Fenner Nature Center Director Liz Roxberry.

"There are huge ramifications to the millage for us," Roxberry said. "We handle the programs, but the millage is what allows us to keep our maintenance going, our parking lots cleared, our buildings in good repair so that theyre usable and we can deliver these programs."

About 65,000 visitors came to Fenner last year, including three seasonal festivals. About 12,000 students take advantage of free or low-cost programs.

"Its a ten times impact over what the Conservancy could do on its own or what the city could do with the millage money," Roxberry said.

Eyes and ears

Friends groups come in various sizes. Scott Sunken Garden, an Italian-style grotto garden and popular wedding spot at the corner of Washington and Main streets, has a devoted team of about a half-dozen "regulars," led by 83-year-old Buelah Voorheis. All are members of the Garden Club of Greater Lansing.

Voorheis has taken care of the garden for 25 years. Several years ago, she got a grant, matched by the Garden Club, for an underground watering system.

"She is the most loyal of all of us," 82-yearold volunteer (and lawn mower jockey) Reba Torongo said.

"Its like her very own garden," Torongo said. "If something is out of place, she takes care of it."

The Garden Club volunteers keep the sunken gardens in trim, while the parks millage keeps the surrounding park and nearby Cooley Gardens cleared and mowed. Larger jobs like fallen branches are beyond their powers.

"They keep the grounds up and we really appreciate that," Torongo said.

The feeling is mutual. Without Friends groups, Kaschinske said, the parks would not be as vibrant as they are, or even viable.

"Friends groups are volunteers, advocates, fund-raisers, and eyes and ears," Kaschinske said. "Youve got to have that buy-in."

Two years ago, a band of downtown residents took a chainsaw to overgrown Reutter Park, the citys oldest park, famous for its multi-colored fountain and drug dealing shadiness in the 1970s. Now its a favorite spot for lunching state workers and patrons of the man library across Capitol Avenue.

"The Parks Department stood in its head to listen to us, give us advice, buy us flowers," Downtown Neighborhood Association stalwart Gretchen Cochran said.

The Friends of Turner-Dodge take care of a historic 1855 mansion on the north side of town. The stately mansion and arbor are a favorite spot for weddings, art shows, concerts and other events. The 3-year-old Friends of Ferris Park group have instigated a flurry of events in the past two years, including park cleanup days, concerts, a picnic bash called Hot Dogs in the Park and a farmers market funded by the nearby Northwest Initiative.

The Friends of Historic Cemeteries keep the citys graveyards trim and alarmingly lively, with events like the Dia de los Muertos tour of gravesides and walking tours. Last Sunday, flivvers from the Central Michigan Model T Club chugged the shady lanes of Mt. Hope Cemetery as part of a tour of the "high rent district" where the city leaders like Ransom Olds are interred. In October, the Friends of Historic Cemeteries holds a "Race to Restore" to raise money to fix crumbling monuments.

Other parks with special attributes need a bit more love than theyre getting. Cooley Gardens, a surprising pocket of trees, shrubs, flowers, perennials and annuals tucked in next to General Motors Grand River Assembly plant downtown, has struggled to keep going since its longtime master gardener, Eric Stinson, retired and wasnt replaced.

Kibbey said the Friends of Cooley Gardens is "very thin" right now and "needs a much more robust Friends organization."

Among the park systems unique gems is the oval, stone-ringed 1922 Moores Park swimming pool, the oldest public pool of its kind in the nation, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Lansings two pools, Moores Park and Hunter Park, topped 20,000 visitors last year, but Kaschinske estimates that about $750,000 worth of repair is needed at the Moores Park pool. (The water intake and outgo pipes are patched-up 1922 originals.) Restrooms need modifying for the disabled, the concrete is cracking, perimeter lights need fixing, and so on.

Its an ideal scenario for another public/private teamup. A crowdsourcing and/or Friends group may have to bear the brunt of the costs at the Moores Park pool.

Fenners Liz Roxberry said the municipal/non-profit partnership is the "direction a lot of public parks systems are going."

"Theres a tremendous potential here with the Lansing parks department to see more of that," she said.

After the storm

Now that property values are inching back up, Kibbey compares the parks landscape in Lansing to a backyard after a storm.

"We need to go out in the yard, pick up the wreckage from the storm and take care of things weve had to put off," Kibbey said.

In the past five years, the most conspicuous capital improvements in the park system were return of Crego Park, an upgrade of Maguire Park befitting its new role as River Trail gateway, and a makeover for the pavilion and gardens at Lansings "premier park," Frances Park.

Several capital improvements top the parks master plan for the 2015-2020 millage. First on the list are about 20 playgrounds, built in 1990 as part of the citys Project Play, that need to be repaired or replaced.

As boat traffic increases on the Grand River, the Grand River Boat Park Launch will get an upgrade. A splash pad for kids, possibly at Moores Park, is also on the list.

If a proposed launch at Tecumseh Park is completed, kayakers and canoeists will finally get a place to launch on the Grand River, upstream from the dam in Old Town.

The parking lot at Maguire Park, the new hub of the expanded River Trail, is often full and due for an expansion.

The biggest item on the list is the planned Beacon Soccer Field at Ferris Park, a free, open soccer field modeled after the mini urban soccer fields in South Africa, to be built at the parks southeast corner. More than 5,000 Lansing area kids are involved in soccer, and the city has a large refugee population from countries where soccer is a dominant sport.

The park promises to be one of the more dramatic examples of leveraging yet. Lansing is seeding the project with $80,000 in parks money. A successful crowdsourcing campaign raised more than $60,000 and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. matched that, for a grand total of $200,000.

The field will feature a synthetic playing surface, a perimeter kick board, goal posts, netting and solar-powered light fixtures.

Other parks improvements slated for 2015-2020 are "mundane," Kaschinske said, but necessary. The citys four community centers, last renovated in 1997, need new carpet and other fix-ups. Kaschinske also wants to fence off Davis Park, home to youth baseball, to keep the ball in play, and make other improvements there.

In the meantime, the city is looking for ways to cut costs. Parks are where the city and the natural world overlap, and not always comfortably.

A 2013 plan to "naturalize" 12 city parks totaling about 300 acres got a mixed reception among residents and city officials. "Naturalize" means many things, according to Kibbey, but for many residents, it meant "stop mowing." Naturalization saves about $3,000 an acre per year.

Kaschinske said naturalizing hasnt been expanded "in a number of years." He cited Washington Park and Ingham Park as successful examples.

The discussion will probably heat up soon. The master plan for 2005-2010 called for the park system to "identify potential natural areas in parks by creating no mow zones in areas that are currently not used for active recreation."

But there is more to "naturalization" than "no-mow." Tree and shrub plantings and wetland development are part of the mix. Kibbey said the parks system serves "all sorts of natural functions we dont think much about," including providing drainage and wildlife habitat. He said that many factors, including safety, fire protection and preserving scenic views all go into the "naturalization" analysis.

Covenant

The next step in the parks growth is linked to a new umbrella organization, Friends of Lansing Parks, which was registered as a nonprofit this month.

The group is little more than a seed packet in Kaschinskes overalls right now, but he hopes it will grow into a coordinated effort and a new force multiplier when it comes to writing grants for new projects. An umbrella Friends group could also share overhead costs and save on insurance carried by individual Friends groups when they schedule events in their respective parks.

Kaschinske was inspired, in part, by the way the Friends of the River Trail took off in a big way last year. The surge in membership and interest in the River Trail has already paid dividends, most notably an informational map display at Maguire park, funded by the Friends.

With a little help from its friends, Kibbey said, the parks system can flourish well into the mid-21st century.

"This is a covenant with the city of Lansing," Kibbey said. "People are digging into their pockets and they deserve a top-notch system." 

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