Partnership between parks and counties is questioned

The Hennepin County agency that runs Scott County's major parks is a sophisticated enterprise with millions of dollars and a track record of customer satisfaction.

But it is not about to invest the large sums of money needed within Scott County to keep those facilities in decent shape as long as the future of the partnership is being questioned.

That seemed to be the message Tuesday as most of the commissioners and senior staff of Hennepin's Three Rivers Parks Department went to Savage for a meeting with their Scott County counterparts.

Scott County is months away from deciding whether to split from its longtime partner. A list of 10 options on how to proceed is to be whittled down to three by April.

Jon Ulrich, Scott County Board chairman, said he can't imagine all three options would call for a split with the Hennepin agency, which owns most of the land in Scott's two big regional parks, Cleary Lake and Murphy-Hanrehan.

And if a split were to occur, it's not clear how park users would be affected. For instance, would it mean Scott would have to increase taxes to keep the same sorts of services?

Asked after the meeting whether the $50-million-a-year Hennepin system subsidizes Scott parks, heavily used by people from outside the county, Ulrich said that is not clear.

There's a paradox for any county in running parks, he said. On one hand, "People love their parks. If you want to test that proposition, just try closing one."

On the other, parks are never seen as a core responsibility of counties in the way that highways or jails are. So when budgets are tight, parks are suddenly on the "amenity" list, subject to cuts.

Last fall there were prolonged discussions at the Scott government center over whether to make big changes, such as imposing fees to get into the parks in Scott.

Hennepin, Gears and others said, had the foresight long ago to peel parks away from the County Board and give them their own resources.

Larry Blackstad, board chair at Three Rivers, warned that the year-to-year deal is a hindrance to sound planning. A predictable long-term arrangement would work better, he said.

Barbara Marschall, a Scott County Board member, said constituents are puzzled as to why a county that is increasingly a major force in the region doesn't control its own biggest parks.

"Funding and control are two of the big issues here," Ulrich agreed after the meeting.

But Three Rivers commissioners emphasized the advantages of a huge, sophisticated staff. And they rolled out numbers indicating that users of Scott County's parks are happy the way things are.

Nearly 80 percent of Cleary Lake users are "very satisfied" with the park, a survey last year found. And 60 percent of Murphy-Hanrehan users feel the same way. While Cleary gets better reviews, no one is dissatisfied with either park, though some have suggestions for improvements.

Scott County hopes to make a call either way within a few months, and Three Rivers officials asked that they be closely involved in any decision.