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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > March > 10
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Editorial: Annual festivals aren’t MetroParks’ essential work
Five Rivers MetroParks is taking a drubbing from at least a few of the estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people who come out for the Garlic Festival. More than a few RiverBlast and Butterfly Festival fans are disappointed, too.
MetroParks is canceling those events, arguing that mega-event planning isn’t the park district’s mission. Reasonable as the view is, it probably isn’t the best way to explain a decision that is bound to upset people who’ve come to associate these big, fun, free annual events with the organization.
Meanwhile, MetroParks also is discontinuing the laser light show that’s held on weekends during the summer and after Dragons games at RiverScape.
Especially coming on the heels of last fall’s vote to renew the park district’s 10-year 1.8-mill levy, of course, some people are going to complain about these things going away. Getting out of the business of delivering something people enjoy is dicey without a well-honed, concrete message of what they’ll be getting instead.
MetroParks is fundamentally about conservation, making nature accessible and education. Putting on the Garlic and Butterfly festivals — each of which takes 1,000 direct hours of staff time, not counting the prep time — was increasingly becoming a drain.
Meanwhile, the events were a flash in the pan. They didn’t protect the parks; the crowds were so big that people weren’t really experiencing the essence of the parks; and there wasn’t a lot of evidence that visitors were coming back on other occasions as a result of having had a good time at the festivals.
Think about how many festivals there are in this community, many of them organized mostly by volunteers. Of all the things Dayton doesn’t have enough of, festivals is not one of them.
When RiverScape opened in 2001, Memorial Day weekend’s RiverBlast was the only festival being held there. Today there’s the CityFolk Festival (which moved from downtown’s main streets to RiverScape), the Celtic Festival, the Hispanic Festival, the African-American Festival and more.
The laser light shows were popular initially, but attendance has horribly fallen off. Charlie Shoemaker, MetroParks executive director, said average attendance is less than 150 on the weekend, 50 during the week after a Dragons game.
Furthermore, the lasers need to be replaced, which would cost $240,00. The computer program for each laser show runs $17,000 on top of that.
MetroParks officials are being disingenuous when they say their decision isn’t about money. Of course money is a driving factor, even if it’s not the only consideration.
MetroParks has a $20 million operating budget; the Montgomery County property tax levy represents about $17.9 million of that amount.
There is some concern that property tax proceeds won’t be as steady as they have been in the past, with large numbers of foreclosures bringing down property values and more people not paying their tax bills.
Meanwhile, starting next year, the tangible personal property tax will be phased out over six years. That will result in a loss of about $1.7 million annually.
MetroParks has 25 parks that cover almost 15,000 acres. Managing them and creating programming is an evolutionary enterprise. What once worked and produced the most payback will change over time.
There’s no shortage of next big things for MetroParks to be involved in — from building a whitewater park to creating more and better bike trails. To create those things, choices have to be made.
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