BILLINGS - The Billings parks department is looking to put some bigger projects on hold to focus on maintaining existing parks.
The goal is to help make all of the parks better and safer.
“When you drive by a park at 35 miles an hour, you look over there and you go, wow, that looks pretty nice, nice and green on it,” said Mike Pigg, Billings Parks, Recreation, and Public Lands director. “But when I and my staff get out there and look closer at that park, we start to see open bare spots. That's a maintenance concern to us. It's less inviting. It's less safe."
Pigg says since 2017, the city has concentrated on replacing amenities such as new playgrounds and the pool building at Rose Park.
“Every time we put in a new amenity, if we don't get additional funding, then it just spreads my staff that much thinner,” Pigg said.
But Pigg says no money beyond the cost of living increase, was added for maintenance during that time.
And he asked for that to change at the Billings City Council work session on Monday night.
The council voted unanimously on a motion to look into selling Lampman Park, something some members say had been approved several years earlier.
"The motion as I heard it was to direct staff to come up with a plan, whatever staff's recommendation would be to effectuate the sale of Lampman Park in particular, that being the primary focus," Mayor Bill Cole clarified before the vote. "But also some group of the other properties and come back to council for further discussion."
Currently, about $4 million of the parks department’s approximately $8 million budget goes to maintenance.
Pigg would like to move about $1.2 million, about half the funds for amenities, over to maintenance.
“It may mean that a playground that is aging and probably needs replacing is probably going to have to last another year,” Pigg said. “But I also think as people go to the parks, they'll find that the restrooms are cleaner. They'll find that the playgrounds are safer.”
Pigg says well-maintained parks are safer.
“People are more likely to go there with their family, with their kids,” Pigg said. “And so that kind of pushes that negative activity out of the park and I think it makes them safer. I know it makes them safer.”
Part of the maintenance would involve adding a second police officer to patrol parks.
Out of a staff of 23, 16 are dedicated to maintenance, almost six short of what is ideal to maintain 2400 acres, according to Pigg.
“We're not asking for any new dollars,” Pigg said. “We're just going to reallocate how we spend our dollars and maybe do it a little bit wiser.”
Some on the council expressed concerns about needing more information before adding more employees.
