A new day is dawning for Allegheny County parks. The system that offers 12,000 acres of walking trails, picnic groves, ball fields and swimming pools has been moved out of the Public Works Department and will no longer play second fiddle to filling potholes and plowing snow. It will have a seven-member advisory commission to steer park operations and a five-member nonprofit group to raise money.
There's more. Each of the nine county parks will have its own Friend of the Park committee, with members appointed by County Council. And most important, Andy Baechle, a new parks director with a decade of experience in the field, will begin his job on May 19.
The conversion of the parks system was an initiative last year of County Chief Executive Jim Roddey, following a consultant's report that laid out a master plan for the nine parks -- North, South, Hartwood, Settler's Cabin, Boyce, White Oak, Round Hill, Deer Lakes, Harrison Hills. In addition to specific proposals for improving each park, the plan by Wallace Roberts & Todd of Philadelphia called for spending as much as $120 million on capital improvements and setting up an independent recreation commission to focus on quality.
No longer would the parks, which cost $18.3 million a year and require the services of 420 employees, be the stepchild of Public Works. No longer would they be the victim of county budget cuts and folded, as they were in 1997, into another department for fiscal reasons.
That's all good news for walkers, swimmers, skaters, picnickers and lovers of public green space. Another hopeful sign is that Mr. Baechle, who lives in Crafton, has strong qualifications for the job. Not only does he have a bachelor's degree in natural resources and a master's in parks and recreation administration, but he also was parks and recreation director in Washington County and in Cranberry. He most recently served as director of Friends of the Riverfront, a nonprofit environmental group.
In addition, Mr. Roddey has sent an impressive slate of nominees to County Council for the seven seats on the park commission, including John Oliver, former secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; Larry Schweiger, president of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy; and Duane Ashley, director of the city's parks department.
With any luck, the reorganization will go beyond reviving the county system and offer city parks their own alternative for long-range, broad-based funding and oversight.
Because in the end, city dwellers and suburbanites alike are souls who need a walk in the park.
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