WHIDBEY NEWS-TIMES: New ‘parks and recreation department’ proposed (VIDEO)

Rachel Rosen reports from the Oak Harbor City Council workshop meeting of Jun. 30, 2022.

During a city council workshop on Wednesday, Oak Harbor City Manager Blaine Oborn proposed that the marina, parks and senior services divisions be placed under an umbrella “parks and recreation department” with a parks and recreation director who reports to him.

They Said It

Councilmember Bryan Stucky said that with the $40,000 increase, one grant secured by the director position would “pay for itself.”

Councilmember Jim Woessner was also in favor of the idea. He recalled a time when there were basketball and tennis lessons and arts and crafts classes at the parks.

“We have all this to offer but we’re underutilizing it,” he said.

Councilmember Eric Marshall said he was concerned because the city is already struggling to find a parks manager.

“My concern is that we’re going to create a director-level position, an administrative-level position and we’re still not going to have the staffing to do the job,” he said.

Mayor Pro Tem Beth Munns was also concerned that additional staff would have to be hired.

Councilmember Dan Evans said the proposed director position focuses too much on grants and that parks should be providing people with things they would be willing to pay for to create a more sustainable solution.

“The mindset needs to change to revenue,” he said. “We gotta start coming up with revenue.”

He pointed out that Oak Harbor has more parks than most cities of a similar size.

“We can’t even afford to maintain the parks that we have,” he said.

Mayor Robert Severns agreed that park staffing was an issue…