Help Keep Hillsborough County Parks Open

 Hillsborough Countys Regional Parks are literally some of the finest parks in the United States. They are always clean and always maintained to impeccable standards. As a result, the regional parks have been featured all over the world and have become a major player in the tourism and economy of the Tampa area. Not to mention they are also popular destinations for local outdoor enthusiasts to hike, bike, fish, boat, canoe, kayak, picnic, horseback ride, swim, etc. This will all be lost if YOU do not get involved!

Currently there are 109 full-time regional park rangers and managers who maintain and operate the 11 regional parks (14 if you count each Wilderness Park site separately). Under the currently proposed 2010 budget-cut plan, 54 full-time, regional park personnel will be terminated (20 of the 54 positions are already vacant due to a hiring freeze). With only 55 remaining employees, the Parks Department will have no choice but to cut the open hours of the regional parks AND close a minimum of 2 days per week. This will only allow them to skim by and just mow grass, service bathrooms and other fundamentals; maintaining boardwalks, trails, pavilions, nature centers, and other key park facilities will come to a halt.

A very simple solution to save these parks would be to implement "day use fees" a mere $1-2 per person from the appx 5 million who use the parks on a yearly basis(even if 30 % of patrons were lost due to fees) would more than cover half the parks departments yearly budget!

Would you be willing to spend  a dollar or two to keep you favorite parks open, rather than see them close and fall into the hands of yet another developer...