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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2016)
SPORTS 8A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2016 Riverside Basketball Camp starts Monday The Daily Astorian Astoria’s Riverside Basket- ball Camp runs Monday through Thursday next week, at the Asto- ria Middle School gyms. The camp, scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon each day, is open to all boys entering ifth grade through senior year of high school. Cost is $50, or $25 with Astoria High School card. A Summer League fee is $75. T-shirt is included. The camp is run by Asto- ria varsity coach Kevin Goin and Astoria High School staff. For more information, contact Goin at 503-949-2810, or by email at kgoin@astoria.k12. or.us. SCOREBOARD SPORTS SCHEDULE SATURDAY Junior State Baseball — St. Helens at Astoria Ford (2), 1 p.m.; Neah-Kah- Nie at Warrenton (2), Noon; Knappa at Kennedy (2), 11 a.m. The Ocean View Ceme- tery opened in 1898. It has more than 16,000 plots. The Daily Astorian File Photo Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Astoria’s Burke Matthews, left, is tagged out by Clatskanie’s Dustin Luquette at home as Astoria Ford swept past the Tigers in Junior State baseball Thursday at Aiken Field, 12-2, 10-0. Parks: Employees can only perform bare-minimum services at each site Continued from Page 1A For example, recent visitors to Ocean View Cemetery — an Astoria Parks-run cemetery in Warrenton — were outraged by the unmowed grass and unpulled weeds they discov- ered there on Mother’s Day. Parks Director Angela Cosby said the department should have spruced up the site but had been focused on site safety throughout the park system rather than aesthetic upkeep. “That’s, unfortunately, the reality for every one of our sites,” Cosby said. The result is that employees can only perform bare-mini- mum services at each site. “We’re basically able to mow and pick up garbage at all of our sites and not much more,” Cosby said. Plans within plans Concerns that Astoria Parks and Recreation resources are spread too thin inform a great deal of the master plan, which says the department must tap more funding sources to hire a suficient number employees at competitive wages. One of the key indings from the master planning pro- cess is that “(m)ajor cuts to stafing in 2011, combined with a rapidly growing inven- tory of facilities and programs, high expectations from the community and decreasing general fund tax support, have contributed to a signiicant maintenance deicit and high staff turnover.” The department may look to increase revenue by regu- larly adjusting program and user fees to keep up with changes in operation and maintenance costs, or by creat- ing a parks and recreation tax- ing district. Meanwhile, to address basic maintenance issues, the master plan recommends increasing community stew- ardship of parks by establish- ing “Friends of the Parks” and “Adopt-A-Park” programs; keeping an online database of maintenance projects that vol- unteers can complete; ensur- ing partner organizations using department sites are also shar- ing maintenance responsibil- ities; and contracting for ser- vices that cannot reasonably be provided by department staff. Ideally, the department will also have funding to: • create a capital improve- ment plan • develop a separate mas- ter plan for the 100-acre Ocean View Cemetery • set up an annual communi- cations and marketing plan for the department • install additional lighting and restrooms along the Astoria Riverwalk • install a permanent rest- room at Fred Lindstrom Park • add, remove, replace or repair playground equipment • improve signage through- out the park system Selling parks? A line on page 55 caught the eye of George “Mick” Hague, a local who attended Thursday’s committee meeting. Under a section concerning where the department should be putting its energy, one rec- ommended action reads: “Eval- uate reconiguration or sale, of surplus or underutilized facil- ities or land, to allow more resources to be allocated to the core (services).” Hague pointed out that res- idents indicated, by and large, that they would rather see their underused parks become green spaces than sold for residential or commercial purposes if the parks department can’t main- tain them. “There’s nothing that the city or the parks can point to that says the citizenry is in favor of selling,” he said. Cosby said Hague is correct. Hague added that he fears future city councilors and city staff will use the line as “cover” for selling off parks. Scott Tucker, a committee member and superintendent of Lewis and Clark National His- torical Park, said most of the deeds for city parks preclude selling them. Some deeds, how- ever, may allow for land to be sold, and Cosby said the depart- ment is requesting legal guid- ance to identify them. Tucker suggested amending the master plan in the future to enumerate the parks that could be put up for sale, the ones with- out such deed restrictions. But City Councilor Zetty Nemlow- ill, a committee member, said the master plan need not be so speciic. “In order to improve ser- vices, we need to give some- thing up; that’s the bottom line,” Nemlowill said. “It would be great to have more money for parks but, going through two budget committee cycles now, I don’t see where that is ever going to come (from).” She added that letting the underused parks become green space is a possibility. Brooke Stanley, a commit- tee member and coordinator at the North Coast Watershed Association, said she supports selling some parks — espe- cially the underused parks that are full of invasive species and don’t provide an ecological beneit — because she would rather the city have fewer sites that are well-maintained than too many sites that aren’t. This is a view shared by many peo- ple in the community, Cosby said. Ian Sisson, the planner and project manager, said the sec- tion Hague objected to will be clariied to read that the mas- ter plan is not recommending selling or otherwise repurpos- ing the majority of parks but the underused parks in areas with an abundance of parks. He reminded the group that, if the city considers selling park- land, the decision will be part of a public process. Astoria Ford opens with sweep The Daily Astorian The Astoria Ford sum- mer team opened the Junior State season with a doubleheader sweep over Clatskanie Thursday night at Aiken Field, 12-2 and 10-0. Game 1 went six innings, with the Fish- ermen opening up with an 8-0 lead through two innings. Ole Englund led the hit parade with a single, double and triple, while Tyler Lyngstad, Cal- vin Kaul and Trey Hage- man pitched two innings apiece. Astoria Ford is sched- uled to host a double- header with St. Helens at 1 p.m. Saturday. Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Astoria’s Mackenzie Pierce is picked off diving back to first base in Game 1 of Astoria Ford’s doubleheader sweep over Clatskanie at Aiken Field. GET LOCAL SPORTS NEWS ONLINE AT DAILYASTORIAN.COM/SPORTS
