State parks cut hours, maintenance

docentjoyce via flickr

This is a majestic view of Montana de Oro State Park near Morro Bay, Califr., with California Poppies lining the Bluff Trail.

California’s state parks, all 279 of them, will stay open this fiscal year despite giant budget cuts. That’s the word Friday out of Sacramento. State officials say they can scrape by if they cut back park hours and maintenance. KPCC’s state capitol reporter Julie Small has more.

Julie Small: Earlier this year, state lawmakers cut 10 percent out of the budget for state parks. Officials with the Department of Parks and Recreation thought they’d have to close down as many as a hundred parks to cope with the shortfall. But the department’s Roy Stearns says that’s not going to happen now.

Roy Stearns: The good news is we keep parks open for the rest of this year, and we’ll start hunting for next year’s solutions in the coming months.

Small: Parks will shorten their hours; some may close during the week, or close off certain areas indefinitely, like a back loop of campgrounds. They’ll also cancel purchases for equipment and vehicles and cut maintenance for the rest of the fiscal year. Altogether, the changes will save an estimated $14 million. Stearns say it won’t be pretty.

Stearns: I think people are going to notice service reductions like bathrooms not being cleaned enough, trash not getting hauled enough. They may see some vehicles that maybe have some service problems. But in spite of that, we’ll be keeping parks open.

Small: State parks will face an additional $22 million cut in the next fiscal year. A spokesman for Governor Schwarzenegger said the state will continue to explore partnerships with private entities to help pay future bills for California’s parks.