Candidate for
Director; Cordova Recreation and Park District

MY TOP PRIORITIES and GOALS:

1. Increase the safety of our parks by working with law enforcement agencies to increase Police presence at District parks.

2. Increase the safety of our parks by taking the lead with other Park Board members and implementing coordinated meetings between park staff, law enforcement and neighbors to come up with a plan to add/or enhance lighting in all of our District parks.

3. Work with the Park Board to apply good business managing practices in running our park systems, same as is done in the business world. The Park District now has many existing and potential revenue sources. Managing our revenue to get the most benefits from our dollars would be an important priority.

4. Develop a training safety program to instruct employees on how to deal with emergency safety situations.

5. This morning(Oct.2)I paid a visit to the the Districts Senior Citizen facility on Routier Road. The benefits that this facility provides to our senior citizens are to numerous to discribe.This facility is long over due for expansion and moderization. This would be one of my priorities. The reality is, this facility is a cash cow for the District, it brings in money to the District with its activities. This money should be used to benefit the Senior complex and not absorbed by other park activities.

6. Many of our existing parks are in need of maintenance and repairs. The irrigation systems are inefficient and leave brown spots scattered throughout. We need to construct additional sidewalks within our parks where pathway patterns are worn into the lawn by pedestrian foot traffic, indicating a high concentration of traffic along a precise route.

7. The maintenance frequency of our parks needs to be seriously looked at. I have visually monitered the Districts parks during both the day and night time hours. I have observed many times where the lawn grass is extremely tall. Other times I have observed blankets of mowed grass laying on the lawn surface so thick it cuts off the sunshine. A 7 day frequency may work for some parks while others may need 5 days. We need a monitering program.

8. Same goes for the trees. The Park District has no program in place to monitor the health of trees or the necessity of tree trimming or other remedial corrections. There are older trees in the Disricts parks that are an accident waiting to happen.

SUMMARY:

There is no reason why our park system can't be managed so that our parks look as good as the landscape in our Office Business Parks.

One of my strengths is pulling people together to work out joint strategies and solutions, a talent developed in my business career. It will take some time to fix all the weeknesses of our park system. My first fix, however, would be to work on increasing the police presence and the park lighting as my top priority.

One asks, "where does the money come to do all of this"? It all falls back on good planning and good business management practices. We have many sources of revenue, "IT CAN BE DONE". Please elect me to the Park Board. With your vote I can initiate a move in the right direction and I will work hard for you.

If elected, my office door will be open to the all citizens of the Park District Community.