The warming house closures during periods when folks might be most injured by the cold along with reducing lifeguard hours in evenings are true safety issues - going beyond the more benign phrases of "service cuts" or "reduced services." I think we all feel terrible that the MP&RB (our park system) is experiencing tremendous financial difficulty right now but in these tough times, we really need Commissioners to set priorities - and safety issues have sometimes lost out to more mundane or more glamorous budget items. This is why lifeguard and warming house hours have been cut.
In the 1950s and 1960s when I was a Minneapolis park kid, we had far fewer trails, paths and lights; far fewer rec centers (including none at Pearl - my first home park), and no gyms that I recall. But we did have warming houses open every day. At Pearl, this was a big temporary wooden structure with an always-hot huge furnace smack dab in the middle of the warming house. We had lifeguards at Nokomis and Harriet in the daytime until almost nightfall. And when the lifeguards went off duty, the MPRB police started more intense cruising of the lakes to make sure the swimmers were out-of-the-water. We had incredibly cheap swimming lessons offered at every lake and pool. Safety was considered essential long before we added MP&RB amenities like multiple wide paths, rec centers, and gyms.
When a kid drowns some evening at a city lake, there will be a hue and cry to restore lifeguard hours. When some skater or sledder is hospitalized for severe frostbite (possibly losing fingers or toes), public reaction will demand a restoration of warming house hours. Before this happens, I really hope our MP&RB Commissioners will restore lifefguard and warming hours before someone is hurt or someone dies. It's early in the year, the MP&RB Commissioners can amend the 2005 budget passed in December right now.
I think I would begin by transferring the $100,000 budgeted for building a putt-putt golf course at NE Park (a project NOT requested by the neighborhood group and a venture with no business plan submitted for the Commissioners' and public review) and apply these funds to warminghouse and lifeguard hours.
The line item 2005 MPRB budget was not released to the public. The MPRB should do so now. Let neighborhood groups, NRP committiees, park rec councils and other concerned citizens study the budget and bring their concerns and recommendations for cuts to the Commissioners. We might actually reach consensus about where to cut/save money in order to restore truly life and health saving services like lifeguards and warming houses. But this won't happen until the MP&RB shares information and welcomes citizen involvement, informed or otherwise. In the meantime, a severe frostbite case or a drowning that may have been prevented could happen at any time.
Shawne FitzGerald
Powderhorn
Where a kid who didn't know how to swim fell through thin ice and drowned in the lake a few years ago
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