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.
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