Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on December 15, 1970.
County Park Board Primary Objective
Primary objective of the Porter County Open Spaces Committee is creation of a Porter County Board of Parks and Recreation. The committee’s recent seminar was organized not only to demonstrate the need for open spaces, but to show how they can best be obtained.
Once the questions of moral imperatives, future necessity and shortage of time were discussed, the seminar turned to questions concerning county park boards. Only one potential problem remainedーthat of state parks.
To answer the questions of whether state parks could effectively provide Indiana and Porter County citizens with open spaces, David Griffith, area supervisor of Northern Indiana Parks, was asked to speak at the seminar.
State parks are not a duplication of city and municipal parks, said Griffith. “State parks utilize the natural features of parks for nature study, trails and specified recreation opportunities. Our main consideration is to maintain and protect the natural beauty and features of our parks. We use them for recreation only in compliance with these natural features.”
Griffith said that in any given park, two-thirds of it would be left natural and not used for recreation, except perhaps nature study. In addition, between 40 and 60 percent of the people who use Dunes State Park are out of state residents.
Griffith said Indiana is short of needed recreational facilities such as campsites and picnic tables. “We can only supplement the national, county and municipal levels.”
Discussing the function of the county park department was Bill Beech, area extension agent at Purdue University.
Beech said the 1965 Recreation Act provides a simple method for establishing county parks boards. The county council passes an ordinance establishing a county park district. The circuit court judge then appoints a county park board that must be impartial politically and may have a county extension agent and school board official ex officio.
The board, said Beech, has several specified functions. Board members must do the planning, which said Beech, “should be done by professional planners.” They have power for the acquisition and development of land. They may hire personnel, accept gifts for the park district and issue bonds. They have the power of eminent domain and they must cooperate with other units of government, especially the county council, from whom they receive their operating money.
Beech said the problem of bonds “worries some people” because the board is not an elected body. “But our experience has been that the elected officials have to approve the bonds before they are sold. We have had one experience where a park board tried to sell bonds without the approval of the elected officials and they could not get them sold.”
Beech added that most counties get started with gifts and matching funds from state and federal agencies. “But it will cost you some money. If you don’t think open spaces are important enough to spend some money, you had better forget it.”
Also tackling the problem of money was Kenneth Harris, an extension agent in water resources with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Harris stated that he too did not think that the burden should fall on the property owner alone. Jokingly, he added, “There is only one good tax, the one the other guy pays.”
Harris then outlined several ways parks could be obtained at a minimum cost to the taxpayer. He considered gifts one of the most valuable ways of obtaining parks. He noted that many of the state parks were originally gifts and gave several examples of how county park systems were started with gifts. But, he noted a county park system is necessary for a county to accept land for a park as a gift.
Another way county park systems can obtain land for parks is through cumulative funds. That is, a small tax is levied and money from the tax is allowed to build over a period of years.
State and federal funds are also available, said Harris, but again a county park system is needed to qualify. Indiana has funds available under the watershed funds act and ASCS payments can be used for purchasing open spaces.”
From the federal government, there is money available from HUD and through the Farmer’s Home Administration.
Harris cautioned seminar participants to use care in financing a county park board. “Those counties who try to do it all by themselves are asking for trouble. But those counties who take every handout the government offers without planning adequately are also asking for trouble.”
Harris suggested that every county considering a county park system should take inventory of what they have, carefully sort out all facts concerning the project, determine a set of alternatives based on the facts and take into consideration the consequences of the alternatives.
In the final analysis, said Harris, “it is the county officials who must take action.”
