Bob Hope

THE CRISIS FACING PARKS & RECREATION by Bob Hope, Superintendent Oak Lawn Park District

(Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from an address given to state legislators at a dinner held by the South Suburban Park & Recreation Director's Association. See May/ June issue.)

Park and Recreation personnel, both professional and elected, are becoming more sophisticated in the mid 70's. Today our State Association is very active in State and National Legislation effecting Park Districts. Our voice will be heard in the political arena on legislation that directly effects park districts or special recreation boards.

Leisure is denned by Webster as "Free time during which one may indulge in rest or recreation." Our business is providing the facilities and programs for the citizens to participate in during leisure. It should be noted that leisure is becoming more and more an issue. Labor unions are talking of the shortened work week and industrial automation is realigning work priorities thereby providing more leisure. The obvious question is what will the citizens do with the time that is becoming available?

The immediate challenge facing us today is the energy crisis. Citizens we serve will be traveling less and a much greater stress will be placed on our existing facilities and programs. The program enrollment in some districts in the past year has not only doubled, or tripled, but has grown to 6 times its enrolment at this time last year.

An interesting study was conducted recently in California by Dr. Frederick S. Stust of San Diego State University. Stust surveyed the southern California area and found these facts:

1. Local recreation facilities are experiencing increased demands.

2. Church attendance is up.

Do you know what is the largest selling drug in the U.S. today? A tie between tranquilizers and alcohol. The American public is obsessed with the energy crisis and psychiatrists tell us that it is producing several anxiety reactions in many citizens—and that tranquilizers and alcohol are being used to reduce the anxiety. If we don't meet the need with recreational facilities today to act as an anxiety relieving situation the State of Illinois will be faced with a catastrophic situation in the foreseeable future. I predict that alcoholism, drug addiction and problems in the area of mental health will be pandemic in scope.

It has been proven conclusively that well planned and funded recreational programs that meet the need of all strata of the community— from Tiny Tots to Senior Citizens—will abate and lessen anti-social behavior. Would it not be better to spend recreational funds to solve these problems before they occur. Our profession has identified the problems and offered solutions, but the solutions require funds.

Parks and recreation in the State of Illinois are big business. Do you realize that the boards and administrations from South Cook County alone represent several million dollars in the expenditure of tax funds for parks and recreation?

It should be noted that there are two governmental concepts in parks and recreation. One concept is the Village Recreation boards. Village Recreation boards are for the most part appointed by the Village Board of trustees and are responsible for their actions to the village board. The second governmental concept is park districts, or generally referred to as special districts. Special

Illinois Parks and Recreation 14 July/August, 1974

park districts are served by elected commissioners who are responsible directly to the constituents.

An important difference between recreation boards and park districts is that recreation boards are eligible to be the direct recipients of Revenue Sharing funds whereas Park Districts are not.

I am not here to offer a value judgement of pros and cons of either system however, I would like to address myself for the moment to the plight of park districts. The State Constitution has eliminated personal property tax as a source of revenue to Park Districts. The impact of this revision will be felt in the late 70's. Recent State Legislative action in the form of HB-586, which was vetoed, would have replaced this needed revenue to Special Districts. This in effect will cut many park districts budgets by as much as 20%. Where do we cut? Do we begin removing services? We are in a dilemma!

We are keeping a very close eye on the Federal Better Communities Act as it is now being developed. As it appears now, language seems to indicate Special Districts will again not be eligible to be recipients for funds.

If I could leave you with one thought, that would be to avoid the delaying of legislation that will bring us to a crisis situation. Cooperate with us in our very important task of providing all our citizens of our village with recreational facilities and programs—Do it now!

There must be other sources of funds developed in the State of Illinois to provide for parks and recreation. I recognize that it's popular today to talk about tax reduction—but to short change recreation is paramount to contributing to the pandemic I mentioned earlier. We need a reexamination of priorities at the state level.

In the Federal Revenue Statute the title of the bill calls for 8 areas of legal allocation—the last listed is recreation. I challenge you legislators to reevaluate your thinking and relegate recreation to where it rightfully belongs—high on the priority of your constituents physical and mental well being.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 15 July/August, 1974