Visitors to Henry W. Coe State Park will soon notice dirtier
bathrooms and fewer patrols, as part of the plan to save millions
of dollars in state parks operations next year.
Visitors to Henry W. Coe State Park will soon notice dirtier bathrooms and fewer patrols, as part of the plan to save millions of dollars in state parks operations next year.
The good news is that the park will not close or scale back its hours of operation, even though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger threatened to close most of the state’s parks earlier this year to help balance the state budget.
The governor settled on cutting $14.2 million from state parks in September, and Tuesday the department announced the final details of its plan to meet the reductions.
“There will be a lot less services in the way of cleanings, and campground patrol (at Coe park),” said California State Parks Superintendent Matt Fuzie of the Monterey District. “There will be no closures or access issues – mostly just cleanliness and less patrol, that can lead to other issues.”
Specifically, bathrooms will be cleaned only one day a week at Coe park headquarters, and garbage removal will only occur one day a week. The service of back country toilets within the park will also be reduced by half, Fuzie said.
Cuts already enacted prior to the Tuesday’s announcement include no more hiring of seasonal employees, and a 20 percent reduction of permanent staff time due to furloughs.
“Permanent employees will be doing all the work,” Fuzie said.
Coe park is northern California’s largest state park, with 87,000 acres. Its main entrance is about 13 miles east of Morgan Hill up East Dunne Avenue. The park also has a back entrance about the same distance east of Gilroy.
The park sees only about 39,000 visitors per year, and earns about $100,000 in day use and camping fees, placing in the “bottom third” of the state’s 279 parks in terms of attendance and revenue generation, according to state parks spokesman Roy Stearns.
Statewide, cuts at other parks include closing camping areas and, in some cases, reduced hours of operation, Stearns said.
“These are moderate cuts that are consistent with the governor’s plan to have reductions that do the least disruption to visitors’ services,” Stearns said. “That plan is designed to keep the parks open, with maintenance and equipment reductions, and service reductions.”
More good news is none of the parks’ full-time employees will be laid off, although hiring of seasonal workers will be reduced, Stearns said. The cuts do not include a hiring freeze, but Stearns said the department is “being very cautious” in hiring in order to save money.
“We have more than 300 vacancies statewide, and those vacancies will help us to continue to save money,” Stearns said.
The service reductions will last at least through the current fiscal year which ends June 30, 2010. Whether next year’s cuts at state parks will be more or less than $14.2 million is currently unknown. The department’s staff is still working with the governor on a plan to continue to keep the parks open next year, even though the state’s economic situation does not appear to be improving.
