State parks rely on fee revenues, focus on their ‘bread and butter,’ overnight stays…
Idaho’s state parks aren’t requesting any increase in state funding next year – Gov. Butch Otter’s budget proposal actually calls for a 2.1 percent decrease in state funding – but they have a long list of plans for park improvements and repairs coming from other funding sources, mainly camping and day-use fees and registration fees that help fund the department.
Among them: Work on another 50-site campground loop at Farragut State Park, likely to be constructed in 2017; five new “deluxe” rental cabins at Ponderosa State Park, complete with kitchens and bathrooms, after the first four installed there have proven popular; a new visitor center and shop at Lake Cascade State Park; and smaller items including new vault toilets, rustic camper cabins, and picnic shelters at several state parks.
“One of the things we’ve found out – we’ve tried to do a lot of different, creative efforts to increase our revenue, and they work, marginally,” said David Langhorst, state parks director. “But our bread and butter is overnight stays.” That’s where the cabins and campsites come in. “They pay for themselves pretty quickly,” he said.
State parks department spokeswoman Jennifer Okerlund said the addition of the 50-site camping loop at Farragut, the second phase of an expansion whose first phase went in nine years ago, will be welcome, even though it’s a ways out; the department is awaiting approval for a grant from RV registration funds, with a decision due this spring. “It’s so popular, and very, very difficult to get a site during peak season,” Okerlund said.
Langhorst said, “We’re not flush with money, but we do have some opportunities because of increases in our dedicated funds.” He told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning that the department is requesting to add back a position cut during the economic downturn, for an interpretive education coordinator. “Until we fell on hard times, we had a full-time interpretive education coordinator,” he said. “We want to bring someone back on staff with the expertise to focus on increasing educational and experiential programs.” It would be funded entirely from registration and camping fees; no additional state general funds are requested. “We want to make a real difference in people’s experience at our parks,” Langhorst said.
“We’re proud to say we’ve increased our dedicated fund revenue,” he told legislative budget writers. “Only about 10 percent of our budget is general funds.”
The department still is carrying over funds allocated for various repair projects in the past two years; all are still in the works, Langhorst said. “These projects take multiple years,” he said, particularly since the department lost 23 percent of its staff during the downturn, and hasn’t restored it five years later.
Among the small successes the department reports on the revenue front: Renting sandboards at Bruneau Dunes State Park, which are like snowboards that are ridden on sand. That started about three years ago. “The second we started renting ‘em, we could hardly keep them on the shelves,” Okerlund said. The budget request for next year includes $10,000 to add a storage facility for the sandboard rental operation.
