State open to collaboration to save Rudd Pond

MILLERTON — The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation a few weeks ago released a list of proposed closures and service reductionsin many parks and historical sites across the state. Since then the area has been clamoring to find a way to save the Taconic State Park at Rudd Pond, currently slated for closure.

The meeting

A meeting of representativs from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, community leaders and residents was held March 10 in the conference room at the new Salisbury Bank & Trust building. Also attending were representatives from the state, Assemblyman Marc Molinaro’s office, local government, business owners and residents, all looking to do the same thing: Keep the park at Rudd Pond open.

The good news: The state confirmed that cooperative agreements with municipalities and community organizations are not an uncommon solution to keeping local parks open. The challenging news: It may require a fair amount of funding to get that kind of an arrangement off the ground.

That shouldn’t come as much surprise. The agency’s list of closures and service reductions were proposed in response to Gov. David Paterson’s executive budget, which tries to address a nearly $9 billion state deficit.

Which parks would get the axe was a decision made after evaluating, among other criteria, performance numbers. The implication being that Rudd Pond is not one of the more popular parks in the state in terms of attendance and revenue versus operating costs.

In perspective, the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation’s budget only represents half of 1 percent of the state’s budget, according to Jayne McLaughlin, regional director  for the agency’s Taconic Region, who was in attendance at the March 10 meeting.

The agency is also one of the only state offices that earns back half of its budget every year, she added. But budget cuts are being made across the board, affecting all sectors that receive funding from the state, and the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is no exception.

Dollars and sense

Also worrisome is the news that the state recently refunded the reservation fees for all parks that have been slated for closure. The closures have not been finalized yet, but this (along with a message on the park’s state-run Web site that the Rudd Pond facility will not be open for camping for the 2010 season) suggests that the closure of Rudd Pond might not be up for much discussion.

The lingering question about the park’s future was and continues to be: how much funding will be needed to keep the park open? Part of that discussion has included concerns about the accuracy of publicized revenue numbers for the park.

This issue was raised by Millerton Mayor John Scutieri and North East Supervisor Dave Sherman in last week’s Rudd Pond article, “Accurate numbers sought for Rudd Pond rescue mission.�

The numbers were clarified early on by McLaughlin at the March 10 meeting: The $15,000 reported as last year’s park revenue by agency spokesman Dan Keefe (which was also published in an article in the March 4 issue) was incorrect, she confirmed.

Both revenue and attendance have been very consistent over the last three years, and McLaughlin reported that attendance each year was about 16,000 and revenue averaged about $41,000 during each of those years. She added that she wasn’t sure how Keefe arrived at the $15,000 figure he had provided.

More than half of that annual revenue (nearly $26,000 last year) comes from camping, followed by reservation fees (a little over $6,000) and vehicle day use (day passes to enter the park) at $3,800.

That the actual revenue generated by the park is triple what was previously stated is encouraging to the local group, spearheaded by Scutieri, working to make sure the park stays open. The big variable that remains, which wasn’t answered definitively at the meeting, is the annual expense line.

There are myriad expenses that have to be budgeted and paid for every year, from personnel costs for maintenance workers and lifeguards down to basic supplies and materials such as toilet paper.

The very rough estimate given at the meeting was that it costs around $80,000 per year to keep the park in operation. The agency will be providing more accurate expense numbers in the near future. But if the $80,000 estimate is in the ballpark , that leaves  a $40,000 gap that the municipalities, if they decide to lend a hand, would have to close.

It’s not uncommon for the state to enter into a cooperative agreement with local municipalities or solvent community groups, McLaughlin explained. And out of the 11 park regions in New York, Taconic has the largest percentage of those agreements.

Sherman said he would be interested in looking at other similar contracts already in place so North East and Millerton knew what they were getting into. That information, along with more concrete expense numbers, will give the group enough data to put together a plan to present to the state, and eventually to the public, in the near future, Scutieri said.

A little PR

Some things to consider if Rudd Pond is going to be a success: Several attendees pointed out that marketing for the park is non-existent.

Jeanne Rebillard said she’s never seen any sort of advertising for Rudd Pond in all the years she’s lived in the area, and Scutieri himself said that up until recently he didn’t’ even realize there were 41 camp sites at the Rudd Pond location.

“We need to work together to let people know what’s behind those pine trees,� he said.

Dave Shufelt said Rudd Pond, while small, was unique among many of the state’s parks in that it was so close to the business community in Millerton. The closure of the park would affect Millerton’s Main Street, from the movie theatre (Millerton Moviehouse co-owner Robert Sadlon was in attendance) to the gas stations (Scutieri said that the Cumberland Farms’ corporate offices would be getting involved).

One of the ideas suggested was that a 501(c)3 organization be established and private donations used to help pay for the park’s expenses. Over time increased marketing from the community could ease the burden of covering the gap, but as village Trustee Jay Reynolds pointed out the upcoming year would rely more on “band-aid funding.�

Whatever the obstacles may be, McLaughlin said her agency is “receptive to any creative solution,� and said numerous times that the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation very much wants to keep the park open.

“We are going to figure out how to keep the park open,� he stated more than once throughout the evening.