Editorial: Park visions / The county needs to use more of its master plan

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Allegheny County has an impressive public recreation system. In nine parks outside the city of Pittsburgh, it boasts 12,000 acres of picnic groves, swimming pools, golf courses, ice skating, skiing and other ways to enjoy the outdoors.

But a system so extensive is constantly bedeviled by challenges. Not only does it cost $21 million a year to operate (with three-quarters, fortunately, funded by the 1 percent Regional Asset District sales tax), but it also faces unexpected headaches.

Last week, for instance, two tons of ceiling in the Tudor mansion open to the public at Hartwood Acres caved in, forcing the building to close indefinitely. And regular patrons of North Park don't have to read an Army Corps of Engineers study to know that the lake there is disappearing; without human intervention, it could be gone in 15 or 20 years.

It's all in a day's work for director Andy Baechle and the Parks Department, which was separated, wisely, from the county's public works operation in 2003. But the parks' comprehensive master plan, completed three years ago, put forth solutions and ideas for the system that have never been implemented.

County Councilman Vince Gastgeb is getting impatient. Other council members should, too. Although suggestions like hiring a professional director, splitting parks from public works and naming an advisory parks commission have been adopted, other measures -- particularly creating a nonprofit group to raise money for the parks -- have not.

The city is way ahead of the county in that regard, with its nonprofit Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, which has collected $20 million for four city parks since 1997.

County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, County Council and Mr. Baechle have to dust off the master plan and put more of it into practice. Or else Allegheny County's parks will become a time capsule from the 1990s.

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Money at issue for places to play

Improving South Park is needed, but plans don't go far enough, official says

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

By Mary Niederberger, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Recent improvements in South Park include the paving of the walking trail that winds around the pond off Maple Springs Drive, the repair of waterfalls at the wave pool, the creation of an off-leash dog park along Corrigan Drive and a newly constructed entrance to the golf course clubhouse.

	Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette
	Dogs run leash-free in South Park in the new large fenced area off Corrigan Drive designated for that purpose.

In addition, the county, with a grant from the Mellon Foundation, is in the process of buying 14 acres which will become part of the park next to the nine-hole golf course, and it plans to spend more than $1 million upgrading the infrastructure at the aging ice rink before the end of the year.

"I can't think of any other park that we've done as much work in," said county Parks Director Andrew Baechle.

All of those projects sit well with District 5 county Councilman Vince Gastgeb, R-Bethel Park, who has made South Park one of his top priorities since taking office.

But even those improvements are not enough to satisfy Gastgeb, who said he wanted to keep the momentum started several years ago by former state Sen. Tim Murphy, who is now a member of Congress. Murphy was able to get $1.1 million in state funding for a study to create a master plan for the parks. Some of the money also was used to improve and upgrade Corrigan Drive, the main road through South Park.

"There is no reason for things to slow down in South Park," said Gastgeb, who wants to see major projects such as a skateboard park, soccer complex and a headquarters for the South Park Historical Society created in the park.

Gastgeb served as chairman of County Council's special committee on parks during the administration of former county Chief Executive Jim Roddy, a Republican. But he no longer holds that position.

Gastgeb said he feared none of the major projects at South Park, which have been discussed for the past several years, would become reality unless the county moves forward with the creation of a nonprofit arm of the Parks Department that would allow the county to seek private foundation funding for large-scale projects in the parks.

Getting the job done

The idea for a nonprofit arm of the department, much like the Pittsburgh Parks Conservatory, which raises money for city parks, was identified in 2001 as a key component of making major improvements in a master plan for the county's nine parks. The master plan, which identified a need for $120 million in capital improvements in the parks, was created after a study done by the Philadelphia consulting firm Wallace Roberts & Todd.

Roddy touted the idea again in July 2002 when he announced the re-creation of the Parks Department, which had previously been merged with the Public Works Department as a cost-saving measure.

It was mentioned again in July 2003 as one of the missions of the newly formed, seven-member Parks Commission, which is to serve as an advisory board to the Parks Department.

Gastgeb said the Roddy administration had little time to carry through with the plans because Roddy was defeated in his re-election bid in November, months after the Parks Commission was formed and Baechle was hired as parks director.

Gastgeb said he waited through the first several months of the administration of Chief Executive Dan Onorato for action to be taken on a parks foundation.

When nothing happened, Gastgeb wrote a letter to Onorato and his top administrators in May, outlining the legislation that he had steered through County Council in October 2002 laying the groundwork for a parks foundation and asking Onorato to move forward. Gastgeb said he got no response to that letter.

He brought the parks foundation up again last week during a tour of South Park with Baechle.

The next day county Communications Director Ali Detar said the county was "in the process of exploring the benefits" of a parks foundation. She said, "We think it is a good idea," but could provide no specific timetable for any action on the matter.

Baechle said the Parks Commission was looking at the issue.

Advocates skate park

In the meantime, Gastgeb said, he plans to make a motion at tomorrow's meeting of the budget committee of County Council to restore capital budget funding for a skate park in South Park. He said he was angry that $100,000 he was able to include in the county capital budget in November 2002 for a skate park in South Park had been diverted.

The skate park, planned to replace a tennis court next to the Dek hockey rink on Corrigan Drive, wasn't constructed in 2003 and the money was placed in a fund for capital improvements at the parks.

At some point in 2003, a decision was made not to build a small skate park in South Park but to lump the $100,000 into a fund to build larger, more sophisticated parks in South Park, Boyce Park and North Park at some point in the future.

Baechle said he had received a $200,000 state grant, and $100,000 from landfill tipping fees for the skate parks in addition to the $100,000 put in the budget by Gastgeb. He has applied for $450,000 in funding for the project from the Regional Asset District board and is seeking funding from KaBOOM, a national nonprofit group that helps to fund community playgrounds and skate parks.

Baechle said he was confident he would be able to raise enough money to build significant skate parks in the three parks and had hired a consultant to design them. Though it may mean it will take longer to get a skate park in South Park, it means that South Park will get a more elaborate park than originally planned, he said.

Baechle said the problem with funding and building a park only in South Park at this time was that there were "equally motivated groups" near Boyce Park and North Park, "with kids coming to township meetings with bags of coins" offering to help build the parks.

That example points out that the conflict between Gastgeb and the county Parks Department appears to boil down to a difference in philosophies and missions.

Gastgeb makes no bones about the fact that he cares only about South Park and getting the most he can for it. "I will continue to fight for South Park," Gastgeb said.

Baechle, as parks director, has to spread resources over a system of nine county parks.

Though it may be nearly impossible to merge their missions, Gastgeb said, he would be happier if the parks foundation were created and he could start to seek private donations for projects in South Park. Baechle said that didn't sound like a bad idea.

"I want Vince to get all of the money that he can for that park," Baechle said.