No Picnic : Conejo Parks District Enters Its 4th Decade With Cutbacks, Higher Fees

Etiquette decrees that a 30th anniversary be commemorated with pearls. But a more fitting symbol for the Conejo Recreation and Park District’s 30th anniversary this year might be a grain of sand.

“We don’t have time or money to throw a party,” groused Tex Ward, who has been in charge of the district for 24 of those 30 years.

The district enters its fourth decade limping.

Instead of throwing a party, state-imposed budget cuts this fiscal year forced the district to lay off nearly one-fourth of its employees, impose a moratorium on new parks, postpone maintenance, raise fees for most of its 2,500 community programs and shorten hours at its five community centers.

It has also been forced to reconsider its plans to move to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza scheduled to open in October, 1994--which would deprive the city of its major outside tenant.

About the only indication that 1993 is a special occasion is a “30 Years” logo on district brochures.

The party poopers were Gov. Pete Wilson and the California Legislature, which last year slashed the district’s $9-million budget by about $1.2 million.

Warding off further cuts is Ward’s chief preoccupation these days.

He said this has been the district’s worst year since its founding in 1963. Not even the severe cuts necessitated by the passage of Proposition 13, the 1978 property tax initiative, compare to the current round of bloodletting.

Still, Ward said, there is a limit to what the district can ask users to pay for.

“You just can’t put a fence around a neighborhood park and charge a quarter to get in,” he said.

The recent bad news overshadows the agency’s tremendous growth since its creation on Jan. 15, 1963, two months after an 80% majority of Conejo Valley residents voted to form the district.

The fledgling district, which came into being more than a year before Thousand Oaks became a city, took control of all park property that had previously been managed by Ventura County. That wasn’t difficult. The county’s sole legacy to the new district was Estella Park on Erbes Road, a dog-leg patch of only 1.4 acres.

Today, the district manages 23 parks of 370 acres. And it owns thousands of acres of open space that include the sprawling Wildwood Park and Westlake North Ranch Open Space. Another 2,500 acres of open space have been committed to the district by builders of the Dos Vientos and Shapell housing developments.

“This community’s been able to lock up 11,000 acres of open space, notwithstanding the traditional park system,” Ward said.

The district has also established a large reservoir of community goodwill.

In the “attitude surveys” the city conducts every five years, Thousand Oaks residents repeatedly say they like their parks better than just about anything else in the community--and they’re willing to spend tax dollars to make those parks better.

In the most recent survey in 1989, residents put parks and recreation facilities fourth on the list of the Conejo Valley’s top five needs (the others were more low-cost housing, a civic auditorium, a public four-year college and synchronization of traffic signals).

Asked what they were most willing to spend their tax dollars on, Conejo Valley residents ranked open space, “passive parks” for picnicking and “active parks” such as ball fields and tennis courts as first, second and fourth, respectively.

“The community has always shown great support for the district,” said Steve Wiley, recreation services manager.

Now, the parks district is testing the depth of that support.

Fees went up 10% to 15% this year for most of the estimated 2,500 programs the district offers for residents. Classes range from pretzel-making and gymnastics for kids to roller-blading and modeling for teens to crafting jewelry, clogging and self-hypnosis for adults to pinochle and Yiddish for seniors. There are also obedience classes for dogs.

The higher fees went into effect with the winter 1993 classes. Preliminary indications are that enrollment may have risen slightly, compared to the winter of 1992.

“Our objective is to try and keep the fees as reasonable and as low to the public as possible,” said Jesse Washington, administrator of recreation and community services.

The price of pretending to be a Charles Barkley or a Nolan Ryan for a couple of hours a week also went up. Registration fees for all team sports are about 10% more this year, Recreation Supervisor Kevin Lukes said.

The Swinging Sirloins, Safe Sox, I Field Good and the dozens of other adult softball teams, for example, are paying $392 this year compared to last year’s fee of $348. The fee includes a $64 deposit that is refunded if a team does not forfeit any games.

Lukes said softball is the district’s most popular sports program, with 260 teams competing last year. But the higher cost may have dampened interest. He said registrations for the upcoming season are running about 5% behind last year’s pace.

Meanwhile, park users who want better facilities are finding they have to pay for them.

When the American Youth Soccer Organization group in Thousand Oaks sought three new soccer fields on park property to handle its booming program, it agreed to cover the costs--more than $50,000, raised with a series of fund-raisers.

The league also agreed to a hefty increase in rent to pay for watering and maintaining the fields. It now pays $1,400 a year for six fields and would pay an additional $6,500 a year for the three new fields, said Tom Sorenson, administrator of the parks and planning division.

“They would let us do it providing they did not have to pay a penny, because they just don’t have the money,” said league Commissioner Lyndsay Timpson.

The agreement must be formally approved by the board and by city planners.

Timpson said the district board has pointed to the soccer league as a model.

“We came to the board and said, ‘We have this to offer, what can you do for us?’ rather than the other youth organizations going to them and saying ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme,’ ” Timpson said.

Budget restraints are forcing the district to cut back nonprofit users in favor of those who can pay more money.

Peter Lauer, executive chairman of the Conejo Youth Basketball League, said practice times at the Thousand Oaks Community Center were slashed this year to five hours a week from 15 hours so the district can sell the time to an adult basketball league that pays more.

“I understand why it’s necessary,” said Lauer. “I just think that it’s a shame. They’re giving us as much as they can.” The league recently spent more than $2,500 to replace the backboards at the community center’s basketball court with new glass backboards.

Other centers are doing more with fewer hours and less staff.

The Goebel Senior Adult Center is now closed Sundays and open only four fours instead of six on Saturdays, said recreation supervisor Mark Schrock. Schrock said he also lost several part-time workers in the budget cuts.

But Schrock said the center is still serving 8,000 to 10,000 seniors every month, the same level as before the cutbacks.

“This is a really progressive district with a lot of super professionals,” Schrock said. “We’re not people who give up easily without a fight.”